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Update on The Lyrical Terrorist
Can you be convicted for your convictions? Ask Samina Malik. Not too long ago, Samina Malik was convicted and jailed in London under a law meant to protect against terrorists. When I first posted about this in our news section, I made a point of recognizing that Malik was NOT convicted for writing and posting her poetry, but that the news headlines implied that her conviction was for exactly that. I had a hunch then that we'd be hearing more about it, and indeed, we are. In convicting and jailing Malik, the UK courts have turned the girl into exactly what she dreamed of being - a martyr for the cause. Her story has sparked netwide controversy about censorship, thought policing and the nature of freedom and terrorism.
In the Saturday's Times Online, columnist Matthew Parris wrote:
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It's about thought crime, isn't it? It's all about that dividing line, so fragile and disputable yet so precious to those who believe in liberty, between what we may say, write or think, and what may be so directly linked to action as to deserve the name of action. One is the proper preserve of the individual; the other the rightful business of the police. Where we draw that line is critical and can only be a matter of opinion. But we drew it wrongly in Ms Malik's case. |
He goes on to suggest that had Malik been a white suburban girl rather than a young Muslim woman the outcome of her trial would have been different - that her lawyer would probably have convinced the court that she was just "going through a silly phase". Chances are he is quite right about that. What he's got wrong is the part about Malik being convicted for writing terrorist poetry. She was actually convicted for possessing what is described as "a library of terrorist training manuals". According to one of the original reports on the conviction,
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Malik, who worked as a shop assistant airside in a branch of WHSmith at the airport, also owned an Al Qaeda encyclopaedia of Jihad, a Mujahideen poison handbook and a 'terrorist handbook' which explained how to make bombs.
On the hard drive of her computer police found a copy of a sniper rifle manual, a firearms manual, anti-tank weaponry, a document entitled How To Win Hand To Hand Fighting, and pictures of weapons. |
Nor was it her writing that attracted the notice of the police - not her poetry, at any rate. It was an email that she wrote to someone referred to as a "terrorist suspect". Her poetry, however, was used at her trial to demonstrate her beliefs and her political leanings. She may not have been convicted of writing bad poetry, but her poetry was certainly used to help convict her of a very questionable crime - owning "dangerous" materials.
Malik was convicted under the UK's Terrorism Act 2000, which makes the following criminal acts:
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* inciting terrorist acts
* seeking or providing training for terrorist purposes at home or overseas
* providing instruction or training in the use of firearms, explosives or chemical, biological or nuclear weapons
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I haven't read the entirety of the charges against Malik, but I do know that she was not convicted of inciting terrorist acts. The charge of which she was found guilty is quoted as "possessing materials "likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism"". I haven't read a thing about any evidence presented that she was disseminating this material, that she owned any weapons, that she had made attempts to purchase any weapons - nothing to hint that she was anything more than a 23 year old girl with strong beliefs that are out of sync with the place where she lives. She was reading. She was writing.
She was convicted, in short, for having a fantasy life in which she was a martyr for her cause. And in arresting and convicting Samina Malik, the courts and legal system have brought her fantasy to life without her having to do anything but download some stuff from the Internet and write some bad poetry about her fantasy.
What scares me about this is the way that her poetry was used. What if someone were to take your poetry into court as evidence against you? Would Patricia Smith be convicted of hate crimes for writing Skinhead? Could my son be "indefinitely detained" because he writes that he would like to "burn this city to the ground"? Will the government decide that I am shouting fire in a crowded theater if I write that anyone who assassinates Bush should be awarded the Medal of Freedom - especially if I own a copy of Civil Disobedience and an instruction sheet on how to make a potato gun? Even worse, will the person who reads what I wrote and likes it enough to save it to their hard drive end up jailed for possessing "materials that could be useful to terrorists"?
At Clattery MacHinery, Rus Bowden advocates for a World Samina Malik Day, stating that writers must be allowed to write what they feel without fear of being imprisoned for their words. While I believe the issue is broader than that - she was imprisoned for what she read - Bowden makes some interesting points:
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Tomorrow, let’s all go and kill someone with her poems. We’ll print them out, and drop them onto people’s heads from rooftops. We’ll roll them into balls and throw them at passersby. We’ll roll them into tubesticks and hit people we approach over the head with them. We’ll get bad breath and recite them. |
I wish I had written that. I'd have put line breaks into it and called it a poem.
P.S. - Rus also includes LOTS of links to other blog entries about Samina Malik's situation from around the world. Some of them are worth reading.
Submitted by chameleon on Tuesday, November 20, 2007 (16:58:21) (1762 reads)
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| "Features: Update on The Lyrical Terrorist" | Login/Create an Account | 5 comments |
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Re: Update on The Lyrical Terrorist
(Score: 1 )
by chameleon on Friday, November 23, 2007 (08:33:31) |
Over on his blog Monkeyboy, Jack wrote about the Samina Malik incident from a slightly different point of view. Read his take under Lyrical Terrorism
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Re: Update on The Lyrical Terrorist
(Score: 1 )
by Jack on Friday, November 23, 2007 (09:50:49) |
I really like your take on the subject, especially that you are drawing attention to the fact that she was convicted for what she was reading. That's at least as worrying as the idea that she was convicted for her poetry, and something I'll have to give some more thought to.
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Re: Update on The Lyrical Terrorist
(Score: 1 )
by rusbowden on Friday, November 23, 2007 (20:00:21) |
I understand that she was not convicted for downloading or for having the library itself, or for writing poetry itself, but with the likelihood that she was to use the accumulated “library” for terrorism.
The poetry showed intent. But, if you don't buy into the court's decision, then she was convicted for writing poetry, because that's what she did. She put the information to use in her poetry.
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Re: Update on The Lyrical Terrorist
(Score: 1 )
by chameleon on Friday, November 23, 2007 (20:11:38) |
Actually, she was convicted of owning material that could be useful to someone planning a terrorist attack - yes, she was convicted of owning manuals about weapons, and instruction manuals on how to kill people. As far as the court was concerned, her poetry was a side issue - it showed her radical beliefs. If they had taken her poetry seriously, they would have moved on the "inciting terrorist acts" portion of the law. Even where her poetry "showed intent", it was not enough. It was as much testimony from her workmates that she was talking more frequently about her desire to become a martyr for the jihad that convicted her as her poetry.
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Re: Update on The Lyrical Terrorist
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by rusbowden on Friday, November 23, 2007 (23:07:24) |
Okay, nicely phrased. I would and did assume what you note, which is why I wrote this: "No matter what real terrorist activity Samina Malik may, may not, or may some day be into, her writing is not, and must not be considered terrorist activity."
In other words, from where I sit, I cannot tell if she is really a terrorist, or even bent on becoming a real terrorist, but the authorities jumped the gun if so. My suspicion is that she is better characterized as an online poet. Everything she was doing is what online poets do, the topical downloading, the pseudonym, even the posing, and so forth.
The poetry may not have been enough to convict, but it should not have been admissable. It was used to falsely color the view of her as a terrorist. And a big part of the problem is the prejudice it creates--most people not knowing what it is like to be a writer, especially a poet writing lyrically.
You say it was minor, but that's like saying the main reason someone divorced her husband, wasn't that he kept putting her family down, or they admitted it had nothing to do with the terrible finances. Gee, you know, as an outsider I'd think maybe if he was nicer to her family, she might have kept him around. Or maybe if they were not struggling so much they'd have had a better chance.
We cannot change the history. The trial became a sham whenever her poetry was interjected. It becomes fair to say that this is why she was convicted. They should have stuck with the testimony of those who said she was talking more and more about becoming a martyr--except: such testimony could not convict someone in and of itself.
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