Music:

Here are the lyrics to “John Walker’s Blues”, the song I talked about in my previous post…
John Walker’s Blues

I’m just an American boy raised on MTV

And I’ve seen all those kids in the soda pop ads

But none of ’em looked like me

So I started lookin’ around for a light out of the dim

And the first thing I heard that made sense was the word

Of Mohammed, peace be upon him

Chorus

A shadu la ilaha illa Allah

There is no God but God

If my daddy could see me now – chains around my feet

He don’t understand that sometimes a man

Has to fight for what he believes

And I believe God is great, all praise to him

And if I should die, I’ll rise up in the sky

Just like Jesus, peace be upon him

Chorus

We came to fight the jihad and our hearts were pure and strong

And when death filled the air, we all offered up prayers

And prepared for our martyrdom

But Allah has some other plan, some secret not revealed

Now they’re dragging me back with my head in a sack

To the land of the infidel

Chorus

© Steve Earle (Artemis Records)

Notice the song does not condone or condemn his actions. It simply tells a story.

Also to those who think the song is comparing Walker to Jesus, it is not. The character of Walker in the song does say that if he dies he’ll rise up like Jesus, but he is speaking of the Muslim view of Jesus as the greatest prophet next to Mohammed. (This is made clear by Earle who said in the interview on the NBC morning show that Muslims always say “Peace be upon him” after saying Jesus’ name.)