One of the distressing aftermaths of the September 11 attacks was the tendency to point fingers at anyone who was, or looked vaguely Arab. The song uses the concepts 'Arab' and 'Muslim' interchangably - this is deliberate, since John Q. Redneck seldom differentiates between the two.
Before Islamic was a crime and justice handed out by mobs,
The Muslims were a peaceful people going about their daily jobs.
A fragment of America that raised the flag on high --
No better, and no worse, than you or I.
Before Islamic was a crime and looking different was a sin,
They'd hoped for judgement by their deeds and not the colour of their skin.
They shared the common dreams in which a nation placed its trust,
And watched those dreams collapsing into dust.
There must have been some deadly curse,
Some long-ago ancestral crime
That stamped itself upon their foreheads
Branding them for all of time;
Some mark that keeps them set apart, some ancient fall froom grace
That damned their race.
So now Islamic is a crime -- on every head that stigma lingers,
And every act of terror brings an instant wave of pointed fingers.
What need of truth and justice, or of freedom's dying flame,
As long as there are Muslims we can blame?
And now Islamic is a crime, as vengeance cries out for a mark
And nationwide a wave of hatred drives them to cower in the dark,
Uncomprehending victims of a world that's gone insane...
But no one seems to care about their pain.
So now as we seek justice on
The ones who caused this tragedy,
Do not forget those Muslims who
Are sharing in our agony.
If we blame all of Islam for a rogue fanatic's sins,
Then terror wins.
This one received a rather mixed reception - some people loved it, some felt it was too heavy on the rhetoric, or made too many easy generalisations. Personally, I felt that rhetoric was the tenor of the day, and am in retrospect fully satisfied with the song, particularly with Lee Billings's additional verse.