Samina Malik is not likely to be a popular poet but it is unclear why she is a terrorist. The 23-year-old airport worker wrote poems about beheadings and her desire to become a martyr-=- listing here favorite videos as the “beheading ones”. It is a case of so-called violent speech and comes close to that of my client Dr. Ali Al-Timimi who was convicted of statements made at a dinner party. For a prior column on Al-Timimi (before I took over the case), click here The British laws have always been extremely fluid and uncertain on free speech. They have not been too controversial because of government restraint. However, the United States has now joined in an attack on free speech for any views that the majority deems unacceptable and threatening. The best protections against radicalism is not to force it underground but to deal with in an open debate. This was the genius of the Framers of the First Amendment.

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