Punk Rock Islam
by Danila
Fiction can be the spark that ignites a movement. A made-up reality that ends up transforming the author’s imagination into something far larger. So it seems with The Taqwacores, a novel by Michael Muhammad Knight.
…this novel explores the twin identities of punk and Islam in their many varieties and degrees of orthodoxy. The story here is primarily with the characters — such as Umar, the straight-edge Sunni; Rabeya, the burqa-clad riot grrl; Jehangir, the dope-smoking mohawked Sufi (who plays rooftop calls-to-prayer on his electric guitar) — and their collective articulation of a heresy-friendly, pluralist Islam.
Since the book first emerged in photo-copy form in 2003, it has inspired a culture of Islam punk rock in the US (and now beyond); a music scene aptly named Taqwacore (a mashup of the Arabic “taqwa,” or God-fearing piety, and “hardcore” for the home-grown punk movement.)
from the New York Times
After reading the novel, many Muslims e-mailed Mr. Muhammad Knight, asking for directions to the next Muslim punk show. Told that no such bands existed, some of them created their own, with names like Vote Hezbollah and Secret Trial Five.
So did the novel create an Islamic punk rock scene from scratch, or did it simply give voice to an identity that was already half-formed and building momentum on its own?
Probably both.
For more, check out some Taqwacore bands, like the Kominas (tagline: I fought Allah and Allah won), and the film based on Knight’s book (currently in post-production).
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