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A 23-year-old who called herself the "Lyrical Terrorist" has become the first woman in the UK to be convicted under the Terrorism Act.

Samina Malik, from Southall, west London, was found guilty at the Old Bailey of owning terrorist manuals.

The jury heard Malik had written extremist poems praising Osama Bin Laden, supporting martyrdom and discussing beheading.

Malik worked at WH Smith at Heathrow Airport until her arrest last October.[...]

Malik burst into tears in the dock when the verdict was read out.

Following the verdict, Judge Peter Beaumont QC, the Recorder of London, told Malik: "You have been in many respects a complete enigma to me."

Malik said she had only called herself the Lyrical Terrorist "because it sounded cool".

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Source.

[ 08 November 2007: Message edited by: unionist ]

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She was convicted of having articles "likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism".

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Originally posted by happydays:
The jury heard Malik had written extremist poems praising Osama Bin Laden, supporting martyrdom and discussing beheading.

very unforutnate but not too suprised. What did she think was going to happen?

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Unfortunate? As in "unlucky"? What's "unlucky" about being jailed for thoughts and words?

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Originally posted by happydays:
very unforutnate but not too suprised. What did she think was going to happen?

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I dunno - maybe the justice system got it right. Better to imprison one frustrated confused poet than risk Buckingham Palace being bombed and Her Majesty beheaded (like so many of her ancestors), right?

Makes sense to me. Happy days are here again.

ETA: By the way B.L. Zeebub, thanks for confessing that you read Lenin. You'll be added to the database... It's unfortunate but not too surprised. What did you think was going to happen?

[ 09 November 2007: Message edited by: unionist ]

Who publishes the Al Queda Handbook, and how did anyone find out she had it? Is there a sting involved here, possibly?

What was in this poetry of hers, anyway?

[ 09 November 2007: Message edited by: Cueball ]

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Originally posted by unionist:

I dunno - maybe the justice system got it right. Better to imprison one frustrated confused poet than risk Buckingham Palace being bombed and Her Majesty beheaded (like so many of her ancestors), right?

Makes sense to me. Happy days are here again.

ETA: By the way B.L. Zeebub, thanks for confessing that you read Lenin. You'll be added to the database... It's unfortunate but not too surprised. What did you think was going to happen?

[ 09 November 2007: Message edited by: unionist ]

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One problem that is evident as an outsider is that there is a real undercurrent of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant racism here that few want to acknowledge. If I had a pound for the times that someone has said something like, "If you're white and English in this country, you don't stand a chance" or that "How dare they come to this Christian country and try to impose their religion on us" and other such claptrap, I could pay for more than a few rounds of drinks at our local. You hear it from the usual quarters most - working class people who feel their "way of life" is threatened by immigrants. Depending on the industry they work in, there are the usual accounts of "stealing jobs" etc. It's all very textbook, which is what makes it so dangerous. It's accepted, mainstream parlance in many quarters without needing to be dressed up in the extremist alarmism of the BNP. People happily vote Labour or Conservative and continue to hold onto views that bear a real resemblance to 1980's National Front propaganda. Add in the usual middle and upper-class "Waspish" racism toward non-white people in working class positions and there's a clear reason that this law and this decision aren't being more fervently opposed and questioned.

[ 09 November 2007: Message edited by: B.L. Zeebub LLD ]

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Originally posted by unionist:
You know Cueball, it appears she was accused of nothing whatever other than possession of these materials - unless the media reports are woefully inaccurate, which they may be. Having said that, in my opinion, any inquiry into her motives, how she was "caught", why she was singled out, whether she sounds "weird" or not, seems to me not only irrelevant, but it diverts attention from the the horrors of such fascist legislation which seeks to control reading and expression.

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You are saying that racist investigative techniques and prosecutorial prodedures are irrelevant, when a person is placed in front a possibly racist and paranoid jury? I think that there is every reason to ask why and how this came to trial. Furthermore, I think the possibility that there are undercover police, secretly setting up internet stings to catch (possibly even encourage) the curious is very likely.

I mean, really, if I had a chance to get a copy of the Al Queda Handbook, I would very likely get a copy. It sounds like it would be very interesting source material for one thing. I have owned in the past copies of Mein Kampf that means nothing. As well in the past I have also had copies of military training manuals on urban warfare and the like.

It does not mean that I intended to plot a campaign of urban warfare to install an anti-Jewish fascist state.

I am interested in a lot of things.

[ 09 November 2007: Message edited by: Cueball ]

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Originally posted by Cueball:

You are saying that racist investigative techniques and prosecutorial prodedures are irrelevant, when a person is placed in front a possibly racist and paranoid jury?

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You must be thinking of someone else - I can't recall ever saying that.

To satisfy your curiosity, here is all I've found so far:

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Jonathan Sharp, for the prosecution, told the Old Bailey that Ms Malik, 23, liked to be known as the “lyrical terrorist” or “a stranger awaiting martyrdom”. He said: “She is a committed Islamic extremist, who supports terrorism and terrorists. She had a library of material that she had collected for terrorist purposes.”

Ms Malik, who is British born, was arrested in October last year after an e-mail that she had sent was found on another person’s computer. When her bedroom was searched police found a ringbinder full of documents that included poems and a list of weapons, Mr Sharp said. He added that Ms Malik had joined an extremist organisation called Jihad Way, which was set up explicitly to disseminate terrorist propaganda and support for al-Qaeda.

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Which is what you should be able to talk about. What did she discuss about beheading and why is that any different than discussing capital punishment? Anyone is free to think Bin Laden is right in what he is doing and freely express this publicly. It's actions that should be the determining factor and so far I see nothing in the story that indicates she was 'conspiring' with other people to commit an act of terrorism.
Jingles -- "She sounds like a Muslim version of an angst-ridden goth kid."
I know Jingles is joking but it is important. Are all Muslim youth now to be jailed or placed under house arrest for studying, investigating and debating aspects of their own faith and culture? Or even just rebelling in a juvenile way? Why are British youth of other cultures allowed to artistically express themselves with violent imagery and not Muslim youth.

From the original post above - "Malik worked at WH Smith at Heathrow Airport until her arrest last October"

Even this doesn't mean anything. Do book store employees have access to sensitive areas of the airport that other people don't. Are there not degrees of security access at all airports?

From the story in the "source" link -- "The court also heard she had written on the back of a WH Smith till receipt: "The desire within me increases every day to go for martyrdom." --

Doesn't mean anything and indicates nothing. She was thinking of a line for a poem and wrote it down. So what.

--"Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command, said: "Malik held violent extremist views which she shared with other like-minded people over the internet. She also tried to donate money to a terrorist group." --

Shared with what like-minded people? Poets, other frustrated youth, or actual terrorist groups?

--"She had the ideology, ability and determination to access and download material, which could have been useful to terrorists. Merely possessing this material is a serious criminal offence." --

Doesn't anyone with access to the internet have the ability to find just about anything? Could have been useful to terrorists. What did she have access to that any serious terrorist would not already either have access to or have possession of. Weapons, maps, etc. Why would they need her to get this? What material is Peter Clarke referring to?

--Malik said the poems were "meaningless", but prosecutor Jonathan Sharp said: "These communications strongly indicate Samina Malik was deeply involved with terrorist related groups." --

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The government's approach to terrorism is creating an atmosphere of suspicion and unease, the head of the Muslim Council of Britain has said.

Muhammad Abdul Bari told the Daily Telegraph the amount of debate relating to Muslims was disproportionate.

He cited Nazi Germany in the 1930s as an example of how people's minds could be poisoned against a community. [...]

Dr Bari's remarks follow recent comments from MI5 chief Jonathan Evans that there are 2,000 people living in the UK who pose a terrorism-related danger, and that youngsters aged 15 are being groomed to be suicide bombers.

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now we really have to be careful what we say.

of course, most of the terrorist literature is being turned out by the American government*. the 2005 quadrennial defense review where they re-state the circumstances in which nuclear weapons can be used, for example.

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Originally posted by marzo:
Even if she were to be shown mercy and treated like a messed-up girl who needs help, she can't be permitted to promote Bin Laden and the suicide- bombers.

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If we took your views seriously (which no one here will - don't worry about that), we would be rounding up American tourists who say that they voted Democrat or Republican, for being shameless promoters of international war crimes and aggression.

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Originally posted by Stargazer:
Regardless of whether or not this girl's feelings are justified (and to a large extent they are), it is clear she needs to live in society and should be getting some help.

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I fully agree. She, and many more like her, need help - not criminalization and confinement - in dealing with the evils that society can produce.

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Originally posted by unionist:

If we took your views seriously (which no one here will - don't worry about that), we would be rounding up American tourists who say that they voted Democrat or Republican, for being shameless promoters of international war crimes and aggression.

Hey, maybe you've got something there...

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Originally posted by marzo:
I think it's important to remember that Britain has had recent experience with Al Qaida types plotting and carrying out attacks, and before that it was the IRA.

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Oh boo hoo, poor fucking Britain, every time it sends troops to invade countries and kill people, it has bad experiences at home. It's so unfair, isn't it?

You can readily understand why the British have to hit back (in self-defence of course) with such brave preventive actions as shooting a Brazilian electronics technician to death in cold blood on the Underground because he resembled a non-White person.

You can also understand why in the struggle to defend themselves against the IRA, they had to occasionally massacre unarmed civil rights protesters and how they came under such oh so terrible pressure to solve terrorist crimes that they had to imprison innocent people for 15 years.

Yeah, sure, marzo, let's cheer them on while they put the suicide bomber cults out of existence.

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Originally posted by marzo:
[QB]I think it's important to remember that Britain has had recent experience with Al Qaida types plotting and carrying out attacks, and before that it was the IRA.

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agreed. it's also important to remember that AQ is a creation of the American CIA.

and that we don't know who the perpetrators were on 7-7-5. just that simultaneous terror exercises were occurring that day, terribly reminiscent of 9-11.

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This should not be considered an issue of free expression because she was uttering threats of violence through her writings and this needs to be taken seriously.

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also agreed. presumably, stopping those who have a clear pattern of killing civilians is even more important. England, the US, and Israel, for example.

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I don't give a shit about her freedom of expression or freedom of religion if she is supporting the suicide bomber cults.

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what about the homicide-suicide bomber cults ? to get a better idea of what i'm talking about, here's some pics of Bubble Chimp visiting a military hospital.

http://www.peakoil.com/fortopic33852.html

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Personally, I have run out of tolerance for people who use religion as an excuse for violence, threats, and picking fights.

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sounds like BubbleChimp & his Christian supporters, and Israel.

the woman in the picture, our best knowledge is, has not killed anybody.

compare that to BubbleChimp and his father and grandfather. they killed lots - Jewish people in WW2, Muslims in Iraq.

sounds like worrying about someone thinking about driving through a stop sign - to stop the guy in the Mack truck - when somebody is driving around in a Mack truck mowing down civilians - by the millions.

[ 11 November 2007: Message edited by: Abdul_Maria ]