- published: 02 Nov 2014
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Dallas ( /ˈdæləs/) is the third-largest city in the state of Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States. Divided between Collin, Dallas, Denton, Kaufman, and Rockwall counties, the city had a population of 1,197,816 in 2010, according to the United States Census Bureau.
The city is the largest economic center of the 12-county Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area (the DFW MSA) that according to the March 2010 U.S. Census Bureau release, had a population of 6,371,773. The metroplex economy is the sixth largest in the United States, with a 2010 gross metropolitan product of $374 billion.
Dallas was founded in 1841 and was formally incorporated as a city in February 1856. The city's economy is primarily based on banking, commerce, telecommunications, computer technology, energy, healthcare and medical research, transportation and logistics. The city is home to the third largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the nation. Located in North Texas and a major city in the American South, Dallas is the main core of the largest inland metropolitan area in the United States that lacks any navigable link to the sea.
Samina Malik, the self-described Lyrical Terrorist, was the first woman to be convicted under the UK's 2000 Terrorism Act. Malik, then a 23 year-old Heathrow Airport shop clerk from Southall, west London, was found guilty of "possessing records likely to be used for terrorism", but was earlier acquitted on the more serious charge of "possessing an article for terrorist purposes". Her conviction was later overturned on appeal.
The documents in question include a library of books on techniques of terrorism, firearms and heavy weapons, poisons, and hand-to-hand combat. Many of these books and manuals are written by and for extremist Islamic groups. A large number of poems and personal writings were also found, dealing with a wide range of subjects. In several poems, Malik expresses her admiration for the Mujahideen, her desire to be a martyr, her approval of beheadings, and her contempt for non-Muslims (whom she refers to as "kuffars"). Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, Head of the Metropolitan Police Counter-Terrorism Command, has said that Malik associated on-line with other extremists and has accused her of being involved with "terrorist related" groups (including "Jihad Way", an organization which promotes al-Qaeda and other radical Islamist groups). He also contends that in the past she has tried to donate money to a terrorist organization.