Justice for Samina Malik!

Samina Malik is a 22-year-old Muslim Briton who was convicted yesterday under the U.K.'s Terrorism Act of 2000 for "owning terrorist manuals" ("articles likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism"). Evidence presented at her trial included poems she wrote. Apparently she is a prolific poet. Here's one of the poems the prosecutors presented at the trial:

How to Behead

Hold him
Tie the arms behind his back
And bandage his legs together
Just by the ankles
Blindfold the punk
So that he won't hesitate as much
For on seeing the sharp pointy knife
He'll begin to shake
And continuously scream like an eedyat
And jiggle like a jelly
Trust me – this will sure get you angry
It's better to have at least two or three brothers by your side
Who can hold the fool
Because as soon as the warm sharp knife
Touches his naked flesh
He'll come to know what'll happen

No evidence was presented at the trial to prove that Ms. Malik had actually committed or was even planning any violent actions against anyone. She was convicted for possessing certain types of literature and writing certain types of poetry. In other words she was convicted for merely thinking certain types of thoughts.

But I'd like to suggest that she was also convicted for thinking certain types of thoughts AND being the child of Asian Muslims. I have written much more violent poems than this one -- one of which was actually published in my High School literary magazine. It's hard for me to imagine that there are no other 22-year-olds in the U.K. who have written violent poetry and/or are in possession of books like "The Anarchist Cookbook" or "Guerilla Warfare" (Ernest "Che" Guevara). Ms. Malik was singled out because of her race and religion.

But never mind the issue of Racism for a minute since the dominant discourse disavows the existence of Racism in the world today. What about FREEDOM -- for which these English and U.S. imperialists claim to be committing genocide in the Middle East? And where is Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch? How come I have been able to find only one article defending Ms. Malik's right to freedom of thought? Has our new motto become (thanks Stephen Colbert) "'live free or do whatever it takes so I don't die"?