Punk Meets Islam And A New Movement is Born
October 28, 2010 2 Comments
PUNK ROCK’S HARD CORE ATTITUDE appeals to any group of people who want to make a statement, so it’s only natural that young Muslims have embraced the genre to connect and create change.
Punk rock and Islam first met in Michael Muhammad Knight’s 2003 novel, The Taqwacores, setting off a movement among Muslim youth. A film adaptation premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival; it opens in New York this week and in Los Angeles on November 12. (Read NPR’s review of the film here).
The film is about a first-generation American-Pakistani engineering student, Yusef, a.k.a Bobby Naderi, whose new off-campus housemates introduce him to the West Coast, “Khalifornia”-created sound of taqwacore.
The word taqwacore is a mash-up itself of the Arabic word for “God-consciousness” and hardcore.
It was inevitable that this purely fictional world would spread into the real streets. In addition to the novel adaptation that started it all, there’s also a documentary of real-life Muslim punk rock bands chronicled in Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam.
Watch a trailer for the doc below. You can also read more about the movement in Taqwacore Webzine, with contributions from bands like The Kominas and the directors of the feature film and documentary.
I am very excited to see this and to read the book. I think there has been a void in my film-watching life since SLC Punk that Harry Potter could never fill.
Bridging religion and punk rock is, however, a rocky road that I’m sure some of the more secular Punk community won’t support. Regardless, it seems that punk music might be a good tool to create spaces for open dialog within the broader community about issues related to Islam, the arts, and individual identity. Further Islamic Punk will inevitably contest homogenized conceptions of Islamic culture that the media seems to perpetuate.
Thanks for the post! Once I’ve read the book I’ll likely post a review.
Hi JP,
Agreed, can’t wait to see it. The energy, heart and power of punk is the perfect match for any youth movement, but especially one that needs a non-traditional way to express itself, and in a new, unexpected way.
Would love to see your review! Thanks for visiting and reading the post.