[Reader-list] 'Lyrical terrorist' sentenced over extremist poetry

[Rana Dasgupta]

'Lyrical terrorist' sentenced over extremist poetry
Claire Truscott and agencies
Thursday December 06 2007
The Guardian


A 23-year-old former Heathrow shop assistant who called herself the
"lyrical terrorist" and scrawled her extremist thoughts on till
receipts has been handed a nine-month suspended jail sentence.

Samina Malik became the first woman convicted under new terrorism
legislation after writing poems entitled How To Behead and The Living
Martyrs.

Malik, described as an "unlikely but committed" Islamic extremist, was
last month convicted by an jury at the Old Bailey of a charge under
the 2000 Terrorism Act.

She worked at WH Smith at Heathrow, where she scribbled her extremist
lyrics on till receipts. On one she wrote: "The desire within me
increases every day to go for martyrdom."

But Malik told the jury she only adopted her "lyrical terrorist"
nickname because she thought it was "cool" and insisted: "I am not a
terrorist."

She wept as she was found guilty of possessing records likely to be
useful in terrorism by a majority of 10 to one. Two female jurors were
also in tears. The court heard that Malik stocked a "library" of
material useful to terrorists at her family home in Southall, west
London.

Jonathan Sharp, prosecuting, told the court she visited a website
linked to jailed cleric Abu Hamza and stored material about weapons.
The court also heard Malik belonged to a social networking website
called hi5, describing her interests as "helping the mujaheddin in any
way which I can".

Under favourite TV shows, she listed: "Watching videos by my Muslim
brothers in Iraq, yep the beheading ones, watching video messages by
Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri and other videos which show
massacres of the kaffirs."

But Muhammed Abdul Bari, secretary general of the Muslim Council of
Britain, said he did not think her actions were a criminal matter.
"Many young people download objectionable material from the Internet,
but it seems if you are a Muslim then this could lead to criminal
charges, even if you have absolutely no intention to do harm to anyone
else.

"Samina's so-called poetry was certainly offensive but I don't believe
this case should really have been a criminal matter. Young people may
well have some silly thoughts. That should not be criminalised. It is
their actions that we should be concerned about."

After her conviction, Judge Peter Beaumont, the recorder of London,
warned her that "all sentencing options remain open" as he granted her
bail. He told her: "You have been, in many respects, a complete enigma
to me."