“In a statement released by the band, announcing the name change, the band mention that their use of the word has been ‘disrespectful and irresponsible’, and apologise for any offense the band has caused.”
Question: when have you ever seen any pop culture apologize for any offense to Christianity or any other religion?
Second question: why do you think Andrew Jackson Jihad — uh, AJJ — has so much “respect” for Islam? Because they see the way the wind is blowing, and they have a lot of respect for a gun. It is easy for cowards to “respect” those who will kill you if you refuse to bow to them.
“Andrew Jackson Jihad Change Their Name Out of Respect for Islam,” by Morgan Roberts, Cultured Vultures, February 25, 2016:
Folk-punk five piece Andrew Jackson Jihad, or the folk-punk five piece formerly known as Andrew Jackson Jihad, have been knocking about now for a strong dozen years. In their time together the band have garnered themselves quite a cult following, on account of their just dab handedness with rustling up a raucous bit of folk-punk with infectious energy and some damn good melody.
Perhaps greater still a reason for the band’s dedicated following is their lyrical themes of social anxiety, existentialism, poverty, politics, religion, and humanity as a whole; subjects that listeners can really get emotionally invested in. Then again, it might be on account of their just being bloody nice blokes all round. Maybe it’s a combination of all of the above, whatever, it’s not important.
The point is they have a dedicated following, a dedicated following who are going to have to get used to their favourite going by a new name. That new name being AJJ. Admittedly, it’s not a drastically different name, given that it’s an abbreviation, and it’s one that many fans have often affectionately (or lazily) already referred to them as anyhow.
The name change in itself, whilst maintaining a sense of familiarity, seems to mainly stem from the band wanting to distance themselves from a possibly perceived sentiment or otherwise the potential connotations of the name – specifically relating to the use of the Islamic term ‘jihad’. In a statement released by the band, announcing the name change, the band mention that their use of the word has been ‘disrespectful and irresponsible’, and apologise for any offense the band has caused.
It would seem then that the name changes stems from the band’s political consciousness, coming into play with the lyrical familiarity and fixation on the topic of religion. Perhaps the fact their bloody nice blokes too. However, it is unusual that the band are making this change 12 years down the line, mentioning as they do that it has been brought up as an issue to them many times along the way, and it’s for this reason that the decision is likely to have your reactionary sorts up in arms. Because Islam. Because political correctness gone mad….
And this is “reactionary” because…?

scherado says
A possible third question: When did they adopt the name? Well, the opening line suggests post-9/11. I really, really do think these guys need to taken over the coals if any of us DON’T want to end up like Britain!!
But it’s the, “[Andrew Jackson] was an odious person and our fascination with him has grown stale.” facet that should get our attention, as well. (At the link.)
“AJJ” doesn’t solve the “problem” in the least. When someone calls me an “A-hole”, I take equal offense without the letters missing, but I might be a bit too sensitive.
I do done believe I done did have myself one “reaction” to this name…change.
Nice try guys, but I do think you might still have a problem there.
Jay Boo says
Maybe they had an epiphany and realized that their band name was ‘disrespectful and irresponsible’ in reference to the VICTIMS of jihad but that would seem unlikely considering that the started using the name a few years after 911.
exmuslim says
Oh, I thought that jihad meant spiritual struggle! How can that be offensive then?
Angemon says
PINO – Punk In Name Only. Can you imagine the Ramones changing their name to Smiths as not to offend Latin people, or Nirvana changing their name to Paradise not to offend Buddhists?
Because preemptively ridiculing valid points magically renders them null and void?
Frank Scarn says
“Because they see the way the wind is blowing, and they have a lot of respect for a gun. It is easy for cowards to “respect” those who will kill you if you refuse to bow to them.”
Are we sure they’re not members of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops? [In the case of the bishops, it’s almost as if Matt. 10:32-33 weren’t in their Bibles.]
Or as Kent Brockman, himself representatively as gutless as any of our MSM, politicians, other slavish worshippers at the PC altar, including far too many so-called leaders of non-Islamic religions, might put it,
“Ladies and gentlemen, er, we’ve just lost the picture, but, uh, what we’ve seen speaks for itself. The Corvair spacecraft has been taken over — ‘conquered’, if you will — by a master race of giant space ants [Muslims]. It’s difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume [convert] the captive earth men or merely enslave them [or exercise the third Muslim option, kill them]. One thing is for certain, there is no stopping them; the ants [Muslims] will soon be here. And I, for one, welcome our new insect [Islamic] overlords. I’d like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to…toil in their underground sugar caves.”
JawsV says
Who would have ever thought that rockers would be kowtowing to Islam?
Pere LaChaise says
This is nowhere near as apparently an act of kowtowing as is the infamous example of the much more important and celebrated artists David Byrne and Brian Eno whose seminal 1980 album, “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts”, the definitive “world music” appropriation album, artistically valid for its creative transformation of source material, was re-released in recent years with one track missing. Can you all guess which track was left out, “in respect of Muslims”? The name of the track was “Qu’ran”, featuring melodic recitation of the same text. Byrne and Eno were very public about their decision to erase what was one of the strongest tracks on the album. They are true self-effacing cowards, as their composition was actually beautiful and now we are deprived of it.
scherado says
I listened totheir post-name-change song at the vulturs link and I, well….”folk punk”? I don’t know what to think about that. Oy.
Jack Diamond says
They have no problem mocking Jesus and Christians, songs like “Jesus Saves” and “Jesus” (“They say that Jesus saves but Jesus doesn’t care/because he is in a grave, in a grave/let’s be our own God”). Affronting Christians is cool but damned if I can find one song mocking people who hate and murder in the name of Allah & Muhammad. No, in fact their name attributes “jihad” to Andrew Jackson because everyone cool knows the Americans are the real terrorists on the planet and the Muslims are like the Native Americans or the Jews, the insulted & injured wretched of the earth, and jihad is not a doctrine of Islam that only has meaning within Islam, it is fungible, something Andrew Jackson could do. But that was before the band learned that jihad was not something violent at all but a struggle for self improvement…or before the band began getting threats from Muslims who have zero tolerance for being mocked by dirty kaffirs, even when they are being “ironic.” I don’t think it was threats by Friends of Andrew Jackson.
Shitty band anyway.
Mo says
@ Jack Diamond
“They have no problem mocking Jesus and Christians, songs like “Jesus Saves” and “Jesus” (“They say that Jesus saves but Jesus doesn’t care/because he is in a grave, in a grave/let’s be our own God”). Affronting Christians is cool but damned if I can find one song mocking people who hate and murder in the name of Allah & Muhammad.”
Thank you for this information. I’d never heard of this band before today. I looked up the lyrics to Jesus Saves and wrote them the following email. I wanted to write more, but I still have a head cold and don’t have much energy. I am so sick and tired of people caving to this death cult everywhere I look!
*****
Dear AJJ:
I was not familiar with your band until I read the story about your band name change.
It is interesting how you don’t want to disrespect a religion that mandates your submission, conversion, or death, yet you have no problem disrespecting Christianity with lyrics like these from “Jesus Saves”:
“They say that Jesus saves but Jesus doesn’t care
Because he is in a grave, in a grave
Let’s be our own God, take care of ourselves and the ones that we love”
Can you tell me why that is? Could it be because you know Christians won’t kill you, but Muslims might? I think we both know the answer to that. It’s easy to mock Christ because that’s “safe”, right? (Not really, since one day you will stand before Him to give account.)
The difference is followers of Christ have no desire or intention to threaten or kill you. Christianity teaches us to love our enemies, not murder them.
Keep that in mind.
[my full name]
Westman says
It’s rumored that the Russian punk band, Pussy Riot, will not be changing their name although there had been some perceived controversy about an association between “Pussy” and “Putin”. It is reported that the controversy started losing steam after hostilities began in Ukraine and fizzled out with the bombing of rebel groups in Syria.
It’s just a rumor, and I just might know the person who started it.
However, the group has not given up protesting, or the name, even after jail and death threats. A new song, “Prison Is A Weapon” seems to be gaining popularity. Shortening the group’s name to the initials, PR, seems unlikely to stop government persecution.
Perhaps if the Andrew Jackson Jihad band incorporated “Pussy” into the band’s name…..
Jack Diamond says
“Pussies” should be their new band name. Alone.
Myxlplik says
It’s reactionary, because Islam insites violence against those who Muslims perceive insult from. In fact Hillary and Obama even used the Wild Mohammean card to cover up Bengazi, when they blamed the attack on Wild Mohammedean Quranimals inflamed over an insulting video about Islam and Mohammed.
These guys either got death threats, or were just worried about inciting the Wild Mohammedean Quranimal Hoard.
Jay Boo says
I wonder if Justin Trudeau will invite them to Canada for a carpet kissing concert tour.
topposter says
What could possibly be offensive to Muslims about naming your band in honor of striving to brush your teeth 3 times a day, or to get to the gym more often, or…. aw forget it.
somehistory says
Never heard of them. Some groups have changed names in the past because the first name chosen was not working and a new name put them in the *news* so more people would be aware that they existed. This name change has put this group out there, but nothing good will come of it. Unless they all convert…or have converted …to the local sect of moslims, the name change won’t help them when the beheaders come calling with machete at the ready.
Judging by the looks of them in the above photo, there is not a lot of brain power in the group. And from the posts of others above with the lyrics from one of their *songs*…mocking our Lord and Savior….I know their music has no value to me. Must be the *values* o was referring to regarding the release of terrorists from gitmo and closing the place.
Patrick Constantine says
Only thing “disrespectful” or “irresponsible” about this group is that guy in the front row’s mullet.
Doug says
Out of respect? I think that it is more out of fear.
Karen says
The Koala looks totally bored.
Jack Diamond says
The koala probably had to listen to their music. It also looks like the smartest thing in the picture.
Karen says
LOL! Agree!
R says
“In a statement released by the band, announcing the name change, the band mention that their use of the word has been ‘disrespectful and irresponsible’, and apologise for any offense the band has caused.”
The name is disrespectful. It’s disrespectful to every single victim of jihad.
Jim says
These guys are not men cause they are afraid some Mulim will target them because of the name. They look like a bunch of loser hipsters and their music I’m sure sucks. So go back down and be PC cause you all lack testicles.
mortimer says
Perhaps greater still a reason for the band’s new-found sensitivity is the presence of DEATH THREATS from MUSLIMS…which no matter how they might deny them, we must suspect to have occurred.
gravenimage says
“Andrew Jackson Jihad” band changes its name out of respect for Islam
………………………
Uh huh. Because who would want to sully the proud tradition of violent, bloody, genocidal Jihad?
Wouldn’t want to make that look bad by associating it with a filthy Infidel music band.
By the way, their musical oeuvre include such gems as “Be Afraid Of Jesus”, “Fuck White People”,
The first song includes these deathless lyrics (apologies for the following profanity):
“…So, be afraid of Jesus be afraid of Jesus
Be afraid of Jesus, be afraid of Jesus
Be afraid of Jesus cause he’s gonna fuck you up old school style
I said, be afraid of Jesus be afraid of Jesus
Be afraid of Jesus be afraid of Jesus
Be afraid of Jesus cause he’s really fucking pissed off at you right now…”
The latter includes these:
“…Fuck those cracker bastards
Fuck ’em right in the ass
Kill the white devil
Kill the white devil
Kill the white devil
Kill the white devil…”
Never mind that all the band members are themselves white–this is self hatred at its finest. And “kill the white devil” comes from the Black Muslims. No wonder “AJJ” has so much “respect” for Islam…
shoehorn says
Some other bands that might want to change their names out of respect and/or they’re not really who their name implies: The Church, Presidents of the United States of America, Dead Kennedys …
Nimrod says
I’ll never respect Islam regardless of whether I get shot or not, because I don’t respect filthy lies concocted by criminal false prophets.
Islam isn’t about respect anyway, it’s only about frightening people into behavioral conformity. Even if people are terrorized into bowing to the Kaaba five times a day and reciting words, but don’t believe any of it, Muslims don’t care because they don’t really require belief only behavioral conformity.
juandos says
Why didn’t the band go all the way and change their name to ‘sniveling cowards‘?
Using the word, “jihad” is offensive? Really?…
Western Canadian says
Any I never heard of this group before, because…..
A) They are no talent losers.
B) Their music sucks, big time.
C) Combined, they don’t have enough functioning brain cells to organize a tour.
D) I have no tolerance for politically correct cowards.
E) i have good taste, especially in music.
F) All of the above.