Now They Come for the Muslim Man

Now they come

Now they come for the Muslim man
Peaceful faithful man of Islam
Next for the men with skin black or brown
Then the foreigner, now the homegrown
First the one with a beard at his throat
Now the man with the baggy coat
Now the man with a black rucksack
Shoot to kill, in the head, from the back
They jail the men who shout and yell
Killed the man who tripped and fell
Now they make war on every man
And everyone sentient must make a stand

I know no-one wants to die in a suicide bomb, but is it really necessary to make life unliveable for Muslims and others who might appear to be potential bombers? I’m hearing of people moving away from and avoiding sitting next to Muslims, and taxi-drivers refusing to take them in their cabs. I’m also hearing about this happening to Sikhs and Christians. How pointless this is, do you think the next batch of bombers are going to be in traditional Islamic dress, or baseball caps and ‘New York’ tops like the last? Are you moving away from everyone wearing street fashion or casual clothes? Don’t you think they can wear suits if they want? Or are you just moving away from those with brown, black or olive skin? Didn’t you notice how light-skinned some of these boys are? Is it the rucksack you’re worried about? Black and Asian people are worried about carrying bags, or even going out at all, in case they suffer discrimination or even street execution. It can’t go on like this otherwise we become fascist, we’re getting very close. The fact is the next bombers could be anyone; fatally alienated people do not appear any different from those who feel socially included; thinking that we can avoid death by sitting away from dodgy looking people is wishful thinking at best. These murderers are not stupid enough to make themselves obvious before attack, and the consequence of our attempted avoidance can only be stress and trauma for the millions of innocent people who become suspects - the bombers have family histories representing at least three continents.
As a White woman I probably will not directly experience the discrimination being faced by so many people now, but it’s like the old poem for me (I paraphrase):
‘First they came for the Jews, and I did not say anything, because I was not a Jew’
If we learnt anything from the second world war and Hitler, can we please put it to use now?