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Is Tahini from ISIS-Controlled Iraq Making Its Way into Canada?

A Saudi television network has reported that tahini (the thing you put in hummus to make it amazing) from ISIS-held lands in northern Iraq may have arrived in Canada.
Photo via Flickr user lizziemoch

ISIS has a very peculiar relationship with food.

On the one hand, they encourage women to cook healthy meals for their caliphate-obsessed husbands. On the other, they maintain tight control over the food that comes in and out of its non-contiguous swaths of land in Syria and Iraq.

Food from the West is routinely destroyed—like the hundreds of boxes of precious chicken that were lit on fire—but then sometimes, it's just re-branded with ISIS logos and redistributed among displaced Syrians in an attempt to convince locals that the Islamic State is on their side.

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READ MORE: ISIS Destroyed Hundreds of Boxes of American Chicken in Food-Starved Syria

Even less is known about the food coming out of the ISIS-held areas of Syria and Iraq. But according to reports from Al-Arabiya, there may be sesame paste trickling out of one such area. The Saudi television network is reporting that tahini (the thing you put in hummus to make it amazing) from largely ISIS-held lands in northern Iraq may be making its way to Canada.

In Iraq, rashi al-Mosul tahini, which hails from the northern city of Mosul, is the most famous take on the oily delicacy. Last June, Mosul was seized by Islamic State forces, but that may not have curbed the demand—or supply—of Iraq's most famous sesame sauce.

Khadhum Jabar, an Iraqi-based business consultant, told Al-Arabiya said that it's entirely conceivable that rashi al-Mosul is making its way out of the tightly controlled metropolis, with the help of independent fighters and smugglers in Kurdistan.

"Their main corridor [for Mosul products] is Kurdistan and from Kurdistan to other places in central and southern Iraq. It is sold under the disguise that is from Kurdistan," Jabar said.

READ MORE: ISIS Is Rebranding Stolen UN Food Rations with Its Own Logo

Not all suppliers in Canada are corroborating this theory. Eddie Yacoub, president of the Ontario-based wholesaler ODECO Trading, claims that he has sourced products from the north of Iraq and that not all of Mosul is under ISIS control. He also added that his products "did not come from ISIS-held lands."

Instead, it seems that tahini production has moved to cities outside of Mosul. "No, not all of Mosul is under ISIS occupation, and some areas still have factories," Yacoub said. "I suspect, it came from places like Alqosh. And many factories have shifted from Bashiqa and Telkaif to [towns in the Iraqi autonomous region of Kurdistan] Duhok and Erbil."

So while information about Iraq's food exports remains nebulous at best, one thing is for sure—Mosul tahini must taste really really good.