British woman convicted of writing terrorist poetry

No, really.



Samina Malik, who refers to herself as a "lyrical terrorist," is the first woman convicted under new anti-terror laws in Great Britain.

The 23-year-old Muslim wrote of her desire to become a martyr and listed her favourite videos as the "beheading ones".

Described as a "committed Islamic extremist", Malik, a shop assistant at Heathrow, hoarded an extensive collection of terrorism manuals, the Old Bailey heard.

She was a member of an extremist group linked to Omar Bakri Mohammed, a hate preacher who fled to Lebanon from Britain two years ago.

Yesterday a jury found her guilty of possessing documents likely to be used for terrorism under the Terrorism Act 2000, by a majority of ten to one, after deliberating for 19 hours.

To be sure, the things that Malik wrote are disturbing.

She also wrote of how she enjoyed video messages from Osama Bin Laden and "videos that showed massacres of the kuffars", or non-Muslims.

In one poem, called The Living Martyrs, she called for Muslims to rise up against the infidels.

In another, How To Behead, she warned that the victim should be bound and blindfolded.

But these are words, not deeds. Words.

A citizen of a western democracy has been convicted of writing disturbing words.

Think about that for a moment.

Then, think about the fact that when the warmongers make the case for bombing Iran, one of the reasons they cite is that President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has threatened Israel. Nuclear war, they believe, is an appropriate response to unpleasant words.

In that context, I guess throwing a woman in prison for poetry isn't all that unreasonable. But only in that context. In any other, it is insane.