As the twin towers collapsed, dust collected in Levine’s apartment 10 blocks away. Blocked off from home, he choked on the realization that along with charred plastic and crushed concrete, he was “inhaling firefighters, police officers, cafeteria workers, secretaries and executives… Muslims, Jews, Christians, atheists, heterosexuals and homosexuals.” He wrote a poem about it.

Ahmad was personally affected by the 9/11 attacks. New York city had been his childhood playground: “It’s where I saw my first rock concert, first bought a guitar, joined my first garage band, first kissed a girl.” After listening to a Junoon concert at the Tribeca College, two blocks from Ground Zero, Levine entrusted his poem to Ahmad. He admired Junoon’s seamless merging of American rock with South Asian music and their multicultural makeup (lead singer Ali Azmat is Pakistani and Brain O’Connell, bass guitarist, an American). “After the Karachi suicide bombings and the threat of a Indo-Pak nuclear war, I came up with lyrics and melody to go with Polar’s lines,” says Ahmad.

No More may be Junoon’s first English song, but its concern over terrorism, grief and hope are themes they have sung for over a decade in Urdu and Punjabi. They were the first band to perform at the UN General Assembly last year. Ahmad has also written to the Indian and Pakistani governments, requesting permission for a Peace Concert at the LoC.

Will peace remain a dream? Perhaps. But Junoon are willing to chase it with roses, not guns.