'Lyrical terrorist' spared jail

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Samina Malik, who called herself the "lyrical terrorist", wrote poems called How To Behead and The Living Martyrs. Malik, described as an unlikely but committed Islamic extremist, was last month convicted by an Old Bailey jury of a charge under the Terrorism Act 2000.

Judge Peter Beaumont, the Recorder of London, gave her a nine-month suspended jail sentence.

Jurors had heard that Malik stocked a "library" of material useful to terrorists at her family home in Townsend Road, Southall, west London.

Malik, who worked airside at WH Smith at Heathrow, wrote on the back of a till receipt: "The desire within me increases every day to go for martyrdom."

The lengthy ramblings about firing rocket launchers and "taking part in the blessed forgotten sacred death of Jihad" were found when police searched her home.

Jonathan Sharp, prosecuting, told the court Malik visited a website linked to jailed cleric Abu Hamza and stored material about weapons. The court also heard she belonged to a social networking website called Hi-5, describing her interests as "helping the mujaheddin in any way 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 Malik told the jury she only adopted her "lyrical terrorist" nickname because she thought it was "cool" and insisted: "I am not a terrorist."

Her conviction has led to criticism by some commentators and Muslims. Muhammad Abdul Bari, Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain, told The Times newspaper he did not think the case should have been taken to court.

"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."