Poems by Zak

Stephen Taylor posts a poem by a "Zakaria Amara," one of the names on the list of alleged terrorists arrested by the RCMP yesterday. More verse by the same author:

Wake up! Where are the Malcolms and where are the X's People of today come back to your senses Before the day comes where there'll be no recompenses We are wasting our time at heaven’s expenses Claim over the fences and lay over the Benz’s The west looks at me with a funny type of way Frown, clown do what you want but I'll never turn around From the sunnah of the Prophet and the Holy Quran Which makes up the perfect deen, the religion of Islam I am filled with peace when at the masjid I hear the Iqama But when I show more interest they call me Osama Just trying to practice my deen so they call me extreme They tell me I am too young, I am only sixteen With Muslims of today there will be no sallah-u-deen So wake up and come back home How many times do we hear it, do we need a different tone? It is time to go out there and get our Islam shown

Catchy, no? But where have I heard that metre/rhyme scheme before? Ah yes. It's the Barry McGuire oldie, Eve of Destruction. MORE: The poem to which Stephen alludes, A Little Muslim From Palestine, apparently dates from 2002, when the Zakaria Amara currently in police custody would indeed have been 16. (Another online poem, The Tree, lists the author as "Zakaria Amara, Canada," so I'm guessing this is our guy.) At the time, it caught the attention of no less a figure than the Australian blogging god, Tim Blair, who posted a lengthy deconstruction of the piece by the literary scholar Imre Salusinsky. Spooky.