Muslim punk rock ‘Taqwacores’ movement update.
The seminal book ‘The Taqwacores’ was published two months ago as an actual book (rather than a spiral-bound Kinko’s copy handout that the author used to sell out of his trunk in Masjid parking lots).
Two films are being produced, a dramatic feature film based on the book and a documentary by Montreal-based filmmaker Omar Majeed. Majeed’s film, which he expects to release this fall, is about a Taqwacore tour of North America with a side trip to Pakistan. The other film will be released “later this year.”
One of many identity threads that are being asserted is that this is a post-Sept. 11 movement of young Muslims flinching away from whatever it is in Islam that could have allowed that.
“What we realized is that Taqwacore is not really a new thing. Islam is a vast tradition and the way it is presented today is a Saudi-inspired export and, so if you look hard enough, you can find things that go against the grain of what you usually see,” Knight said.
Last year, ‘Taqwacores’ author Michael Muhammad Knight and friends snuck two Muslim punk bands (Secret Trial Five and The Kominas) into the ISNA conference in Chicago to crash the open mike entertainment night.
“We let the Secret Trial Five on stage first, the all-girl band from Vancouver. The audience was mostly girls in hijab at this point — they were eating it up, it had been such a dull show up until this point,” Majeed said. “But the organizers were flipping out.… They called the cops on us.”
The SPs at Randy’s Rodeo on Elvis’s birthday it wasn’t.
awais 7:18 pm on February 25, 2009 Permalink |
Actually the two months ago publishing is the second time, revised and shit. The first was from Autonomedia.
Muse 8:04 pm on February 25, 2009 Permalink |
Can someone explain this Taqwacore stuff to me? I totally don’t understand it – what is this “punk Islam” people speak of?
PI.info 8:12 pm on February 25, 2009 Permalink |
I know people are interested which is why i posted it – also we’re going to probably hear alot about it later this year with two films coming out – but it’s not my scene. Anybody?
Willow 10:21 pm on February 25, 2009 Permalink |
I was supposed to see Mike Knight when I was in NYC, but wires got crossed and it never happened. As I understand it, Taqwacore is Islam melded with straightedge punk culture (no drinking, no drugs, no sex…just music).
The two ethos do have a lot in common. Some of the most committed western converts I know came out of either punk or goth subcultures. (I was a goth for much of my misspent youth.) Both reject mainstream ‘meat market’ pop culture…I’ve heard identical criticisms of western sexual ethics from straightedgers and conservative Muslims. (The former included a lot more profanity.) If you listen to new wave/dark wave/goth rock, you’ll find a TON of Sufi influence, both covert and overt. (Dead Can Dance springs to mind.)
BuzzK 1:22 pm on June 21, 2009 Permalink |
Peter Murphy (Bauhaus & solo) is a Sufi. Married a turkish woman and lives in her city. Hooked up with Mercan Dede for a album or two.
I loved Murphy as a solo artist and front for Bauhaus. Like Richard Butler from Psychedelic Furs, he was able to bring theater to each of his songs during live performance. Money well spent on their shows compared to the shoe gazers that came later. Siouxsi was also quite a show.
I never gothed it up much, hair & makeup. Few guys can pull that off. One sort of needs to be a waif with dramatic facial features. Chisled cheekbones, etc. Like that dude on Twilight. But I did live with a real feeling of perpetual holloween for a few years. Goth on the inside.
I wonder where the crossover is between goth and sufi. Strange bedfellows.
Pani 8:13 pm on February 28, 2009 Permalink |
I like Kominas.
But I like Al Thawrta and Sagg Taqwacore best!
Ben63 6:01 am on June 21, 2009 Permalink |
Interesting stuff indeed !!! Aside from the film and the documentary, I believe this photographer has done extensive work on the matter.
Yakoub 2:28 pm on June 21, 2009 Permalink |
The Taqwacores novel has garnered considerable kudos from being a recommended text on several ‘Contemporary Islam in the USA’ modules on undergraduate Islamic Studies courses. Knight’s writing style has been compared to that of Hunter S. Thompson, although not by me.
fathima 12:16 am on June 22, 2009 Permalink |
aside from the religious perspective, one of the things that fascinated me most about Knight’s novel was that he was this white author, whose protagonist was brown — and it was believable. in fact, much of the novel felt true to life, with two notable exceptions:
i.) there was the brief appearance near the end of a lesbian muslim, whose presentation was much more superficial than of other characters, including one gay male character; and
ii.) the the sexual liberation of young virgin muslim women was presented as hinging on the interventions by young muslim men. so whether they’re imams or deviant punks, it appeared muslim women could never “find themselves” without input from muslim men.
so it’s interesting that it felt to me Knight got the race bit right, but tripped up a bit (though not egregiously or consistently) on the gender stuff.
in any event, even though i was never a goth or a punk — i veered much towards gangsta rap in high school — there was a lot in in the novel that felt familiar to me.
The Kominas have an interview up at that i really enjoyed watching. they’ve also made some of their music available for free.