This is not a punk picture...


Charlie Daniels angers Arab community
By Associated Press

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) -- Charlie Daniels, the man who wrote and sang "This Ain't No Rag, It's a Flag," is drawing heat from Arab-Americans who say it refers to a derogatory term used against them.
Daniels, 67, is scheduled to perform Saturday in Dearborn, the center of southeastern Michigan's 300,000-member Arab-American community.

Ah yes, the Charlie Daniels phenomenon. Really, need we say more? No, but we're going to...

After the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Daniels wrote and recorded the song, which became a country hit.

It begins:

"This ain't no rag, it's a flag and we don't wear it on our heads. It's a symbol of the land where the good guys live. Are you listening to what I said?"

No, Charlie, according to the picture above you wear it to cover your bloated, pasty torso. For which we're all grateful, trust me. And then there's this lovely site, which seems to give the lie to Mr. Daniels.

On Saturday, the Charlie Daniels Band will perform at the city-sponsored Homecoming Festival.

[snippage]

Daniels says the song is not directed at Arabs and Muslims in general, just at turbaned terrorists like Osama bin Laden.

"It's not anti-Arab or anti-anything," he said Wednesday by phone from Tennessee, where he lives. "The only thing it's `anti' is the people who bombed us on 9/11. I have people who say you're putting down people who wear turbans. I'm not."

"There are good Arabs and bad Arabs, good Greeks and bad Greeks, good people and bad people in any race," Daniels said. "I'm not a racist person. I came up during the old Jim Crow days. I know what racism is."

Yes, Charlie does indeed know what racism is.