Catholic priest crucified
On Good Friday in Mosul,
Children blown to bits
In Lahore’s Shalimar Gardens,
A piece of pink Heaven on this bloodyearth.
Built by the Mughals to celebrate God
In marbled, mosaic mosques:
It celebrated the Hindus and the Buddhists,
The Sufi saints who’d moved into the future
Keeping their close hold onto the past.
It celebrated the Christians and the Jews
Who were joined to the Muslims, as brothers,
As the peoples of the book.
……
Now, instead of scholarship, the Islamic world is defamed
By these devils of savagery, mass graves, beheadings, blasphemy
All the narrow cruelties of Salafist Wahhabis
Who believe that heaven is only to be found by those who murder in the name of G-d, between the pages of a closed book.
Come, come, instead and look at the Calat Alhambra
Described by the Moorish poets as a pearl set in emeralds
Built whilst, we, in Northern Europe still laboured to turn a sod.
The Alameda de la Alhambra, so full of wild flowers,
Roses, oranges and myrtle. Filled with the songs
Of nightingales, the music of streams and cascades;
A very heaven built by these majestic Muslim Moors.
InnerUrban 