Posted on 10/31/2001 11:24:20 AM PST by TwoBear
Some Muslims find Charlie Daniels' New Song Offensive
by Doug Mason
Zaynab Karnes hasn't heard Charlie Daniels' controversial new song "This Ain't No Rag, It's a Flag," but the Muslim woman is familiar with the sentiment expressed in its first verse: "This ain't no rag, it's a flag/And we don't wear it on our heads."
"My own grandmother told me I should take 'that rag' off my head," says the 28-year-old Knoxville native, whose family settled here before the Civil War. Karnes was raised Baptist but converted to Islam 1 1/2 years ago. She wears hijab, or Muslim dress, which includes a head covering.
She was offended when told of Daniels' song, which is receiving airplay on area radio stations, including WIVK. The song sparked controversy after Daniels was asked not to perform it at the Country Freedom Concert in Nashville on Oct. 21. The nationally televised concert raised more than $5 million for the Salvation Army Disaster Relief Fund.
Daniels wrote "This Ain't No Rag, It's a Flag" in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and he planned to premiere it at the fund-raiser. Instead, he withdrew from the event after the concert organizers, Clear Channel Entertainment and Country Music Television, asked him not to play the song because they deemed its lyrics inappropriate. "If the song is offensive, I figured my presence there also would be offensive," Daniels told The Hollywood Reporter.
That decision got Daniels more attention than he bargained for, and soon he was the darling of talk radio. According to the Hollywood Reporter, requests to play the song have poured in at country music radio stations.
WIVK program director Mike Hammond said the station plays the song "two or three times a day." He said it gets "some" calls for the song, but the station receives far more requests for Daniels' Vols football anthem "Volun-Tears." Hammond said he has no problem giving airplay to the new song. He said he doesn't believe the rag-on-the-head lyric refers to Muslim head attire, but rather to bandanas decorated with the stars and stripes of the U.S. flag.
But Karnes said Daniels' meaning is clear, and he's not singing about doo-rags. "It refers to my head covering," she said. "(It's) disrespectful to Muslims. It's not a rag that goes on my head." Karnes is the director of the preschool at Annoor Mosque, which is near the University of Tennessee campus. She said the school closed for a week following the Sept. 11 attacks because of fear of revenge attacks against Muslims. She said some local Muslim women who wear hijab stayed home because they were afraid of becoming targets of misdirected hatred.
"We didn't get a chance to mourn because we were worried about our safety," she said. "I am an American. I'm just as mad as everybody else. I want justice just as bad." She believes the "uneducated view" expressed in Daniels' song will just foster more prejudice against Muslims. "In this type of war, we have to be careful ... who we target," she said. "This is a war against terrorism, not a war against religion."
In the Hollywood Reporter interview, Daniels admitted the unabashedly patriotic song isn't for the easily offended. "It's aimed totally at the terrorists who did this thing to us," he said. "If I yielded to political correctness, I wouldn't be doing justice to the victims."
Currently, the song is only available as a single. It's included free with the purchase of the new "Charlie Daniels Band Live!" album at the Web site charliedaniels.com. The Hollywood Reporter said traffic at the site has soared, along with online sales of "Live!"
Pleassssssssssssse, he has to be kidding. The PC Police are killing me.
It's a free country, you silly rag head.
I have no big heartburn over the song. Why, if Daniels were creating anti-American music under the guise of the National Endowment for the Arts, you'd never hear a peep anywhere but here on FR.
Bummer.
Welcome to post-American America, Charlie.
Like that twisted freak up in Maine. What the f**k is wrong with these people? These scum who betray their own culture make me sick to my stomach.
Why an American woman would convert to Islam is beyond me.
I think she ought to go whole-hog, though, and emigrate to Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia.
Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown
Big f*cking deal. I find these "American" muslims' lack of patriotism offensive. But you don't see the press breaking down my door for an interview.
Also, having actually met Mr. Daniels on several occassions (he lives in the same town outside Nashville that we do), I seriously doubt whether he gives a rat's hind end about what she (or anybody else, for that matter) thinks. He's an American first and foremost and that's all that matters.
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