Lyndie England had a little lamb in a pram
Found it to tame for fame
Conscripted voluntarily to Iraq for infantry
She found it nothing like her mother’s pantry
For in seeking the US dream with England’s cream
She made the world scream.
Abu Guraib led us to the leash on a lease
Bush holding the leash for ‘England’ to use it with ease.
In frenzy the world cried HORROR!
And Lyndie made a such a furore!
When she cried foul on the heath hoping for some care
The Pentagon went ‘Macbeth’ frenzy crying ‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’
Iraq went sinister
Oh! So much of blister
A head in the bag
Got the world to sag
Abu Guraib still a shame
Its all a game that went lame in the name of fame.
Lyndie is pregnant
It was heaven sent
Then there was little Lyndie in England
Looking for mama’s memoirs in the desert sand
Only to find her mama the smoking gun
Revolting her mama in the desert sun
She screams to release
Then she knows she is on her mother’s leash
USA had her on lease for she carried her mother’s genes
And that’s how USA continues to be mean.
Are you on lease on the USA’s leash?
Lyndie was and she did as she pleased.
So please don’t be found deceased
On the USA’s geo-political leash
Allah will not be pleased.
Lyndie called to repent
Surely time well spent
Regret will not let her forget
But her boldness is now set
Lyndie off the stage
After all the rage
A little Muslim Girl in Occupied Palestine dead
As the M-16 bulleted singed her tiny head!
No one cried that Muslim Lives matter, but a whole while later
All that was said was that BLACK LIVES MATTER
When Floyd was choked to death his words caused great splatter
The world cried and mourned strangling the COVID-19 phobia reality
And we all stood in unison unmasking the other fatality!
Then Iyad Halaq, autistic shot on suspicion of a weapon setting the kill motivation
Netanyahu cried Halaq was in the wrong location
Alas! Does Muslim Lives matter Netanyahu?
COVID -19 still on the agenda with WHO
Annexation of WEST BANK is on
The WORLD is still forlorn but all in crayon
Painted murals saying no
The world has to do more to glow.
Muslim lives matter too with the same sound and fury
We forget that too because we chose what to bury.
Buried not are our stereotypes of Muslims in the news
Because we love the attention of CNN & FOX and the few.
Arise oh people! Indeed we are in Allah’s Grace
Meet HIM with some face
All Human lives matter with Allah the Majestic
If you fall for any racism YOU ARE ALL Elastic
Stretched and pulled for another’s fancy
While you remain the pansy
Others the World over are Standing up with great gusto
Painting on the Separation Wall in Occupied Palestine also
Floyd is among the martyrs of all those killed by coward snipers
From Gaza to Africa, America looks not the same for the USA Dream is in tatters
Because All Lives matter.
Abdullah Sujee
All lives matter. Yes, this statement is true. However, I fear it is being used to deligitimise a valid movement for social justice.
Must we engage in ‘whataboutery’?
When peolpe say, ‘save the rhino’, do we jump up and say, ‘save all the animals’? Do we jump up and say, ‘what about the elephant?’ No, we support a legitimate cause because we understand that the rhino is under threat. We support the cause on its merits.
Can we not view the black lives matter movement on its merits? There is no doubt that black bodies, black lives are subjected to physical and structural violence. Black lives, in the USA are subjected to institutional and structural racism. Let us recognise this and support the movement.
As a minority, as black people, as Muslims we must support a just cause and not engage in whataboutery.
Saying black lives matter in no way deligitimises or lessens the cause of other oppressed communities around the world. In fact, the oppressed people of the world must stand in solidarity with each others causes.
Thank you. An excellent comment. The purport of the poem is to highlight the fact that all lives matter and that Muslims lives matter too. Muslims have faced and are still facing stereotyping and generalisations that have defamed Islam and have been subjected to great humiliation in their own lands. In writing the poem the oppression of Blacks is given significance in a wider angle of human right violations, e.g. the mural on the separation wall in Occupied Palestine hails him as a martyr. So yes, as Muslims we must support the cause of Black oppression and never to alienate the oppression of Muslims too in the same vein.
I really appreciate your comment and the ‘whataboutery’ is just the poetic construct to incite debate as this one.
Sincerely
Abdulah