Is writing bad poetry a terrorist act?
Posted by: Keir Graff
Shirley Dent says it isn’t. And Harry Potter gets worked into the discussion. From the Guardian books blog, again (“Terrible poet, laughable terrorist“):
In his recent book, An Invitation to Terror, Professor Frank Furedi likened official responses to terrorism to that of the school kids in Harry Potter: the terrorist threat is a “Voldermort-like figure that cannot or must not be named”, and instead of identifying and giving the threat “a clear name, they prefer to castigate evil extremists and radicals who apparently hate freedom”. Bang to rights on this script in the Malik trial. The prosecution, the defence and the judge all unwittingly conspired to give Malik’s warblings about martyrdom and beheadings far, far more credence than they were due.
December 6th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
[...] The Lyrical Terrorist has been sentenced. From the Guardian (”‘Lyrical terrorist’ sentenced over extremist poetry,” by Samina Malik): A 23-year-old former Heathrow shop assistant who called herself the “lyrical terrorist” and scrawled her extremist thoughts on till receipts has been handed a nine-month suspended jail sentence. [...]
December 7th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
[...] Book Blog: Is Writing Bad Poetry a Terrorist Act? posted by Keir Graff [...]