There's quite a debate brewing on IslamOnline.net, the Cairo-based clearinghouse for Muslim issues and dialogue. Over the weekend, a poem called "How to Behead" appeared on the arts-and-culture page of the popular site. The piece was written by a young, self-described "lyrical terrorist" named Samina Malik, of Southall, west London.

It appears that the UK's recently amended counterterrorism laws target all sorts of terrorists -- including the lyrical kind -- and last month Malik, 23, received a 9-month suspended sentence, making her the first woman convicted under Britain's Terrorism Act of 2000. The Guardian has this account of her trial, in which she was found guilty of possessing "records likely to be useful in terrorism."

Among other dubious activities, Malik had scrawled militant messages on cash register receipts she handed to customers at the Heathrow Airport shop where she worked. And then there were her "poems," valentines to violence and martyrdom, as well as what the papers described as "a library" of militant literature at her family's home in Southall.

Malik narrowly escaped a jail term, having been acquitted of the more serious charge of "possessing an article for terrorist purposes." However, the conditions of her suspended sentence are so stringent, the Guardian points out, that she will be, in effect, under house arrest.

Whether to boost traffic to the site or to spark a genuine debate on the limits of free speech, IslamOnline reprinted Malik's beheading poem in its entirety and asked readers to answer this question: "Reading the poem above, what do you feel? Do you feel instigated to commit an act of terror, or do you feel disgusted?"

Um, the latter? Malik's graphic descriptions turned my stomach, and I think my editors might have a problem with me posting the full piece on our Web site. (You can see it here, if you must read the whole grisly thing.) Here is an excerpt:

Blindfold the punk
So that he won't hesitate as much
For on seeing the sharp pointy knife
He'll begin to shake

So far, there are 60 related comments, nearly all of them from Muslims condemning the piece as vile, silly, hateful and damaging to the image of Islam. Only a tiny minority of commenters supported Malik, whether as kindred ideological spirits or fervent supporters of free speech. One of the more nuanced postings came from a reader identified only as "am," who wrote about how such extremist rants can be soothing for Muslims who are angry about U.S. and British foreign policy toward the Islamic world.

"Look guys, this is bad writing, no doubt. Someone is just letting off some steam. Should it be published on a reputed site as this? Probably not. However, the intelligent masses who understand the oppression of muslims, may find some sympathy in the context it was written. It probably was not even meant to be published," the commenter wrote.

To some Muslims, the danger in how the Brits handled Malik's case stems from a fear that the authorities have given her exactly what she desired: martyrdom. Her chilling words have now reached an international audience via cyberspace, inviting criticism that the authorities prosecuted an apparently unstable young woman when the killers who translate her words to deeds are still at large in Iraq, Pakistan and elsewhere.

As the AP's Paul Schemm reports today, al Qaida just began offering video clips that Internet users can download to cell phones and swap via Bluetooth or infrared technology. The story doesn't say whether beheading videos are among those on offer, but rest assured they're not hard to find. And they're a thousand times more terrifying than Malik's sophomoric verse.