Today, a 23-year-old who called herself the "Lyrical Terrorist" has become the first woman in the UK to be convicted under the Terrorism Act. Only minutes ago, Samina Malik was found guilty at the Old Bailey.
Malik was born in Britain and grew up in the west London borough of Southall. Like many from the area, she found work at Heathrow Airport where she was a shop assistant at WH Smith.
The jury heard she had written extremist poems praising Osama Bin Laden, supporting martyrdom and discussing beheading. Malik was deeply involved with terrorist related groups, but the astonishing thing about her, the court heard, was that she worked as a shop assistant at the airside branch of WH Smith at Heathrow Airport, which meant she had total security clearance to all areas of the airport, including aircraft. This made a mockery of security vetting, the prosecution said, as Malik wore a hijab and made no secret of her Islamic faith. "It all adds up to Samina Malik being a dangerous extremist" said Mr Jonathan Sharp, the prosecutor.
It was not known how many other potential Islamic terrorists worked in similar sensitive locations. Police said they had found a "library" of Islamist literature in her bedroom including The Al-Qaeda Manual and The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook. The court also heard that she wrote about terrorism on the back of WH Smith receipts. One note read to the jury said: "The desire within me increases every day to go for martyrdom."
The head of MI5 has said there were at least 2,000 people in the UK who pose a threat to national security because of their support for terrorism. Jonathan Evans said attacks on the UK were "not simply random plots by disparate and fragmented groups", but part of a "deliberate campaign" by al-Qaeda. MI5 knows of 80 terror plots currently threatening the UK and is keeping 2,000 individuals under surveillance. He warned the threat was "serious" and "growing" and said future attacks could be chemical or nuclear.
In the past 12 months, MI5 had found links between an increasing range of countries and terror plots in the UK, he said. The "al-Qaeda brand" had expanded and now posed a threat to the UK. The most urgent danger came from "home-grown" terrorists, Muslims born within the UK.
"We will do our utmost to hold back the physical threat of attacks, but alone, this is merely containment. Mr Evans said he did not think the level of terror threat against the UK had "reached its peak". Shiraz Maher, a former member of radical Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir, said the recruitment of young people by militant groups was a reality.
Malik was born in Britain and grew up in the west London borough of Southall. Like many from the area, she found work at Heathrow Airport where she was a shop assistant at WH Smith.
The jury heard she had written extremist poems praising Osama Bin Laden, supporting martyrdom and discussing beheading. Malik was deeply involved with terrorist related groups, but the astonishing thing about her, the court heard, was that she worked as a shop assistant at the airside branch of WH Smith at Heathrow Airport, which meant she had total security clearance to all areas of the airport, including aircraft. This made a mockery of security vetting, the prosecution said, as Malik wore a hijab and made no secret of her Islamic faith. "It all adds up to Samina Malik being a dangerous extremist" said Mr Jonathan Sharp, the prosecutor.
It was not known how many other potential Islamic terrorists worked in similar sensitive locations. Police said they had found a "library" of Islamist literature in her bedroom including The Al-Qaeda Manual and The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook. The court also heard that she wrote about terrorism on the back of WH Smith receipts. One note read to the jury said: "The desire within me increases every day to go for martyrdom."
The head of MI5 has said there were at least 2,000 people in the UK who pose a threat to national security because of their support for terrorism. Jonathan Evans said attacks on the UK were "not simply random plots by disparate and fragmented groups", but part of a "deliberate campaign" by al-Qaeda. MI5 knows of 80 terror plots currently threatening the UK and is keeping 2,000 individuals under surveillance. He warned the threat was "serious" and "growing" and said future attacks could be chemical or nuclear.
In the past 12 months, MI5 had found links between an increasing range of countries and terror plots in the UK, he said. The "al-Qaeda brand" had expanded and now posed a threat to the UK. The most urgent danger came from "home-grown" terrorists, Muslims born within the UK.
"We will do our utmost to hold back the physical threat of attacks, but alone, this is merely containment. Mr Evans said he did not think the level of terror threat against the UK had "reached its peak". Shiraz Maher, a former member of radical Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir, said the recruitment of young people by militant groups was a reality.
