It isn’t terrorism if you’re white, part XXXVIII

Last Wednesday I blogged the case of the socalled lyrical terrorist, who had her conviction for “storing material likely to be of use to terrorists” quashed; the material in question being some fairly ropey, anarchist cookbook style “terrorism manuals”. It was another in a long line of dodgy anti-terrorism prosecutions, with lots of media attention and lots of government hype, not justified by the endresults. Every so often another supposed terrorism plot is uncovered, a serious threat averted and it always turn out to be either be no-hoper wannabe-jihadists with no links to real terrorists, mentally disturbed fantasists or just innocent people looking a little bit too Muslim for the Metropolitian Police.

If the suspects are white however, it’s another matter. Remember the terrorism case in Burnley two years ago? Probably not, as apart from some mentions in the local paper, few newspapers or news shows deigned to pay attention to it, despite the fact that the people involved had massed a huge arsenal of weapons and such and were talking about the coming racewar. Unlike the heavy-handed prosecution of Muslim terrorism suspects, the government kept quiet about this case, didn’t whip the tabloids in a feeding frenzy and let the courts do their job. Last Friday, there was another such case, as a Goole Nazi sympathiser went on trial for making nail bombs, amongst other offences:

A Nazi sympathiser charged with terrorism offences after nail bombs were found at his East Yorkshire home has told a court that he made the devices when he was “just sat around bored”.

A jury at Leeds Crown Court heard how police found four home-made nail bombs in a holdall under a bed in 31-year-old Martyn Gilleard’s flat in Goole.

Officers also found “potentially lethal” bladed weapons, 34 bullets for a 2.2 calibre firearm and documents about committing terrorism, including how to make a bomb and how to poison someone to death.

Again, little attention has been paid to this trial, a Google news search finding less than twenty news articles on the subject, but you can imagine the hue and cry had this been a Muslim suspect. It’s not that I want the same hysteria for this case, it’s just that it’s so blatantly obvious how the British government atttempts to create a narrative about terrorism, by spotlighting those cases, no matter how weak, that fit the War on Terror and keeping quiet about those that do not. It’s easy enough to get the media to cooperate on this, as journalists, not to mention their editors, are lazy and under constant deadline pressure; few go out looking for stories that don’t fit pre-determined templates.

Official: writing poetry isn’t terrorism

I blogged about the socalled “lyrical terrorist”last year, who was arrested an prosecuted for writing bad jihadi poetry as well as having some dodgy books on her bookshelves. Eventually she was convicted under the 2000 terrorism act, but appealed and now she has had her conviction quashed:

Samina Malik, 24, was given a nine-month suspended jail sentence at the Old Bailey last December after she became the first woman to be found guilty of storing material likely to be of use for terrorism.

Malik, of Southall, west London, adopted her nickname because of extremist lyrics she wrote on till receipts, but was never prosecuted over her poetry.

The lord chief justice, Lord Phillips, sitting in the court of appeal with Mr Justice Goldring and Mr Justice Plender, quashed the conviction after the Crown conceded that it was unsafe. In his judgment, Lord Phillips said the court decided that an offence would only be committed if the material concerned was likely to have provided practical assistance to a person either committing or preparing for terrorism. Propagandist or theological material did not fall within the legislation, he said.

“We consider that there is a very real danger that the jury became confused and that the prosecution have rightly conceded that this conviction is unsafe.”

In other words, once again it’s the judges that have to clean up the mess New Labour made passing badly drafted laws.

Books are terrorist material now?

It seems like, judging from the press reports on the conviction of the socalled “lyrical terrorist, in real life a not too bright 23 year old woman working in a WH Smiths at Heathrow:

In a box file in the family lounge was a printed version of the “declaration of war” by Osama bin Laden.

One of Malik’s poems, entitled The Living Martyrs, said: “Let us make Jihad/ Move to the front line/
To chop chop head of kuffar swine”.

A second poem was called How to Behead. “It’s not as messy or as hard as some may think/ It’s all about the flow of the wrist,” it read.

The Mujaheddin Poisoner’s Handbook, Encyclopaedia Jihad, How To Win In Hand To Hand Combat, and How To Make Bombs and Sniper Manual were found on her computer.

The court heard Malik joined an extremist organisation called Jihad Way, set up explicitly to disseminate terrorist propaganda and support for al Qaida.

Jonathan Sharp, prosecuting, said she was an “unlikely” but “committed” Islamic extremist: “She had a library of material that she had collected for terrorist purposes. That collection would be extremely useful for someone planning terrorist activity.”

Do something for me, willya? Just put these titles mentioned above in Google and see what comes up? Take “How To Make Bombs” for example: quite a few hits there. That’s because this whole conviction is utter bollocks, in which this confused young woman who gets just a bit too involved in playing muhajedin is just
railroaded as an example of how tough British justice is on terrorism. This doesn’t make the country any safer.