Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

First woman convicted under Terrorism Act

Liz Smith | 15.12.2007 19:39 | Analysis | Repression

On December 6, Samina Malik, a 23-year-old from Southall, West London, became the first woman in the UK to be sentenced under the Terrorism Act 2000. Malik was sentenced to 9 months, suspended for 18 months, with the condition that she be supervised for the whole period and undertake unpaid work. She has already spent 5 months in custody and 1 month under house arrest after her conviction.

Passing sentence, Judge Peter Beaumont said that Malik’s offence was “on the margins of what this crime concerns” and said he was taking into account her family background. “You are 23, of good character till now and from a supportive and law-abiding family who are appalled by the trouble you are in,” he said.

Following her trial in November, the jury at the Old Bailey found Malik guilty, by a majority of 10 to 1, of “possessing records” likely to be used for terrorism. She was convicted of having articles “likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.”

Malik, who worked airside at a WH Smith newsagent at Heathrow Airport until her arrest in October last year, had written and posted poems on the Internet that the court deemed extremist. She had earlier been found not guilty, under Section 57 of the Act, of possessing an article for a terrorist purpose. Malik denied the charges.

The jury was told that Malik, who dubbed herself the “Lyrical Terrorist,” had written “extremist poems” praising Osama Bin Laden, in support of martyrdom and beheading.

One of her poems, “How to Behead,” was extensively quoted in the media and used by the prosecution to arouse a sense of repugnance in the jury. It states, “It’s not as messy or as hard as some may think/ It’s all about the flow of the wrist. No doubt that the punk will twitch and scream/ But ignore the donkey’s ass/ And continue to slice back and forth/ You’ll feel the knife hit the wind and food pipe/ But don’t stop/ Continue with all your might.”

The court also heard she had written on the back of a shop till receipt; “The desire within me increases every day to go for martyrdom.”

Court prosecutor Jonathan Sharp said, “These communications strongly indicate Samina Malik was deeply involved with terrorist related groups.” Police said they had found a “library” of extreme Islamist literature in her bedroom including The Al-Qaeda Manual and The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook. Deputy Assistant Commissioner and head of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command Peter Clarke 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.

“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.”

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

In her defence, Malik said the poems had been “meaningless,” and that she had only called herself the “Lyrical Terrorist” “because it sounded cool,” explaining that it did not mean she was actually a terrorist or wanted to be one.

During the hearing, Malik explained that she started writing love poetry under the name “Lyrical Babe” while at Villiers High School in Southall. She then began writing rap poems in the style of artists Tupac Shakur and 50 Cent. Of one of her many poems, she said: “This does not mean I wanted to convert my words into actions. This is a meaningless poem and that is all it ever was. To partake in something and to write about something are two different things.”

Malik was prosecuted for a thought crime, and her conviction represents a grave threat to democratic rights. As offensive as her poems may be, they were the thoughts of a troubled individual and not a terrorist.

The decision by the jury was taken against the background of a hysterical media barrage around the so-called terrorist threat, while the ink was still drying on the Queen’s Speech in which the government made clear its intent to deepen the assault on democratic rights and civil liberties. In the same week, Jonathan Evans, the head of the secret service MI5, gave his first speech in which he spoke of Al Qaeda targeting young teenagers in particular.

It was clear from the evidence presented in court that Malik’s interest in Islamist fundamentalist publications never amounted to any actual plans to cause injury or a conspiracy to commit a terrorist attack. She did not possess any explosives or weapons, nor was any evidence presented that she attempted to procure them.

The attraction to Islamic fundamentalism of a section of Muslim youth is a political problem, not a criminal issue. It is a politically confused response to the actions of the imperialist powers in the Middle East and Africa, exacerbated by the social difficulties and racism faced by young Asians in Britain and throughout Europe.

In the absence of a socialist political movement of working people against war, social inequality and racism, and with a nominal Labour government instrumental in all of these attacks, it has been possible for Islamist reactionaries to portray themselves as a genuine anti-imperialist force. Far from combating Islamism, the anti-terror laws not only undermine the democratic rights of everyone but also help push a layer of young people towards it.

This situation is exacerbated by the failure of many civil rights groups to strenuously defend the democratic rights of Muslim youth and the growing closeness of the most high-profile, Liberty, to the government. Protest against Malik’s sentencing was generally subdued and came from only a small number of writers and journalists.

The fact that downloading Internet material is a “criminal offence in itself” means that millions of people throughout Britain could potentially be tried and convicted on the basis of what they or someone else entirely might do with it.

Liz Smith
- Homepage: http://www.wsws.org/

Comments

Display the following 12 comments

  1. What planet are you people on? — A dead member of your family
  2. Poetry Corner — Lyrical Terrorist
  3. Schlock Horror — Danny
  4. Dead family members — Peoples Republic of Southwark II
  5. The killing fields of the UK. — Glyndwr
  6. No — A dead member of your family
  7. Motorist killers — Strepsil
  8. Dead Family — Danny
  9. An incovenient truth — A dead member of your family
  10. Trying to donate? — Peoples Republic of Southwark II
  11. a question — ...
  12. Sure they do. — Noraid
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech