Music and Terrorism

“I kill you!” screams Achmed the dead terrorist; then the audience of the Jeff Dunham has a big laugh at the expence of this “perfect representation” of what a terrorist is. This is what a terrorist looks like right; he has everything a terrorist looks like, he has a turban, beard and his name suggests that he is a Muslim from the Middle East, a terrorist.  Ever since the world trade center fell, this is what the description of a terrorist is. This discourse of terrorists has painted a terrible picture for any person of Middle Eastern heritage.  Although the terrorists were Muslim, that does not mean that every Muslim is a terrorist, the attackers were the most radical sects of the religion.  A parallel situation is comparing the Westboro Baptist Church to all Christians.

An example of the racism towards the Muslim people is the whole fiasco involving the mosque a few blocks away from ground zero. In 2010 there was a big story in the news about a mosque being built “on ground zero,” well it wasn’t on ground zero so much as it was a few blocks away from it and it wasn’t a mosque but more of a muslim community center. The Community center was largely protested by people who believed that the terrorists were building it in order to disrespect those lost in 9/11; but in reality, it was built so the muslim people of New York could come together as a community outside of mass. This situation is a great example of the discourse that Americans have towards Muslims; even though these Muslims are American citizens, they were still scrutinized for even thinking of building a mosque near ground zero.  The language that the media used for this story was against the construction of the community center; for example, just the fact that they immediately came out and said that it was being built on ground zero and even how they just assumed that it was a mosque, which it wasn’t.

“So, we must ask ourselves, what is the dictionary definition of the word terrorism? The systematic use of terror especially as a means for coercion.  But what is terror? According to the dictionary I hold in my hand, terror, is violent or destructive acts, such as bombing commited by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands. So whats a terrorist?” This quote from Lowkey’s song Terrorist proves a very good point on the subject of terrorism. Technically both sides are terrorists, in the sense that both the US and the Middle East used coercion through violence.  Along with the prior song, I also found a song by the band Lamb of God where they play a testimony from a staff seargent on his experience in Iraq; he said, “We killed a lot of innocent civilians… These Fedayeen are now in civilian clothes that make everybody free game,
but if they came in our perimeter, we lit 'em up. And when we would pull the body out, and when we would search the car, we would find nothing.
This took place time and time again. No harm, no foul, that's OK, don't worry about it.” This exemplifies the fact that even the US military can be terrorists, the staff seargent went on to say "I honestly feel we're committing genocide over here,
I don't believe in killing civilians, and I'm not going to kill civilians for the United States Marine Corp." The deaths in the Middle East were not and will never be justified.

The music used in the years after 9/11 was a double-edged sword, on one side there was the music that was used to bolster American spirits directly after the attacks such as where were you (when the world stopped turning), which asks about peoples feelings when they heard the news of the attack. That song did not call for war, but it still didn’t go against the war. Along with those types of songs there were songs that flat out wanted war, and wanted revenge for what happened; such as Toby Kieth’s song Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue. Another pro war, get the terrorist song was that of Darryl Worley, Have you Forgotten? This song basically asks why some people don’t support the war by asking have they forgotten about 9/11 and who the enemy is.

Those two country songs are examples of how music can strengthen a discourse on terrorists. These songs provided Americans with a reminder of who the “bad guys” were, these gung ho war songs showed us a common enemy, this strengthened the discourse toward terrorists. On the other hand the Lowkey song, as well as the Lamb of God song, both cause questioning in regards to the steriotypes of terrorism. So really, in my oppinion, music can both bolster and destabalize the effects of the discourse on terrorism.