"The enigma that is the 'Lyrical Terrorist'

A 23 year old Muslim woman, Samina Malik, was found guilty of of possessing material "likely to be of use" in terrorism this week after an Old Bailey trial. The evidence is quite horrific and I am slightly confused as to how she was acquitted of the more serious charge of having material "for the purpose" of terrorism. The fact that she was working "air-side" at Heathrow airport (in WH Smiths) and so would have been familiar in security procedures does not fill me with confidence and I will be even more worried than normal when I next fly from a UK airport. Samina Malik called herself the "Lyrical Terrorist", which I think upset the BBC as the Beeb prefers to refer to "terrorists" as "militants", "freedom fighters" or "radicals".


I would like to contrast the BBC coverage as shown here on their news website with that of Channel 4's TV coverage see here...



and in the The Daily Mail and in the The Daily Telegraph.

What do the BBC miss from their article? There is no mention that she was a "member of an extremist group linked to Omar Bakri Mohammed" (per Daily Mail). The BBC reports that "the court heard, on an online social networking group known as Hi-5 she listed her interests as "helping the mujahideen any way I can" and, in the section for her favourite TV shows, she entered "watching videos by Muslim brothers in Iraq, yep, the beheading ones.". The Daily Mail reports that "She had a profile on the social networking website Hi-5, where she called for the execution of "depraved" Westerners. The British-born Muslim listed her interests as helping the Mujahideen "in any way I can". She also wrote of how she enjoyed video messages from Osama Bin Laden and "videos that showed massacres of the kuffars", or non-Muslims."

On the subject of the poems, the BBC report that "She also wrote poems with titles such as "How to Behead" and "Beheading - How it Feels"."
The Daily Mail gives us rather more detail "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."
Take a look at the poems
and see that whilst the BBC title "Beheading - How it feels" is ambiguous as to whether it is about how it feels to be beheaded or to behead, the actual poem is rather more of an instruction on how to behead.
The Telegraph reports that she posted "poems on websites across the internet about killing non-believers, pursuing martyrdom and raising children to be holy fighters."

The BBC report that "she downloaded manuals from the internet with such titles as "How to Win in Hand to Hand Combat" and "The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook.""
The Daily Mail gives us a bit more detail again she "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."

The BBC report that she called herself the "lyrical terrorist", the Telegraph informs us that "Malik, 23, who was born and brought up in Southall, West London also called herself "Stranger Awaiting Martyrdom""

Only the Telegraph tells us that she had "dozens of handwritten notes hidden in the pages of a book and a bracelet which carried the word jihad [holy war]."

The BBC report that "when she was at work she spent a considerable amount of time composing rambling messages written on blank till rolls about her desire for martyrdom."
The Telegraph expands on this "she had written: "The desire within me increases every day to go for martyrdom, the need to go increases second by second.""

The Telegraph reports some more chilling information "In her poems she wrote about killing heathens, adding: "Kafirs your time will come soon, and no one will save you from your doom." Police found a copy of Osama Bin Laden’s Declaration of War and a passage in which she praised the al-Qa’eda leader and added: "We will not let you have any peace. We will show no remorse, no mercy and no regrets" In one poem, called "Raising Mujahideen [holy fighter] Children," she recommended indoctrinating children from the age of seven, adding: "Show the children videos and pictures of mujahideen and tell them to become strong like them." Explain how the Mujahideen fear no man - they fear Allah alone, and for his sake they are able, willing and capable to do anything in defence of Islam." Malik joined an extremist organisation called Jihad Way set up to disseminate terrorist propaganda and support al-Qa’eda."


Why are the BBC so restrained in their reporting of Islamic terrorism in the UK? The "narrative" they want to present is that it is just to do with Iraq and they angle the coverage to that end. The fact that the first UK Islamic terrorist plot was discovered in Birmingham in November 2000 (before the Second Iraq war) is never mentioned by the BBC.