The Muslim Hippies?

The Taqwacores inspired not just ‘The Kominas’ but a whole new subculture of Muslim punk groups across the US and Canada such as ‘Vote Hezbollah’ in San Antonio, ‘Al-Thawra’ in Chicago and the all-girl ‘Secret Trial Five’ in Vancouver, Canada. The bands define their brand of music as ‘Taqwacore’—from the Arabic word ‘taqwa’ or ‘consciousness of Allah’ and ‘hardcore’, a form of punk rock.

Michael Muhammad Knight, the author of The Taqwacores, converted to Islam at 15, went to Pakistan at 17 where he studied at a madarsa and almost joined the Chechen mujahideen before growing disillusioned with orthodox Islam and returning to New York. “I imagined the Taqwacore scene as a place where Muslim kids could define Islam for themselves. Punk and hardcore seemed like the best way to do that,” he says.

Marwan Kamel, an Arab American who is the lead vocalist of the ‘Al-Thawra’ band, says he’s had ‘bombing jokes’ and ‘camel jokes’ thrown at him since he was in school. “My peers would ask me if I had ever seen a bomb or rode on a camel in the desert and I’d say that I have only seen a camel in Chicago’s zoo,” he says. American Muslims, says Kamel, are the neo-Blacks. “Muslim and Arab bashing has become a socially accepted form of prejudice in the United States, reminiscent of the Black-bashing in the American media of the ’50s and the ’60s,’’ he says.

So, how does the Taqwacore philosophy solve Kamel’s dilemma? “It allows me to be a complicated Muslim. Several Muslims in the US think it’s not ‘Muslim enough’ to be ‘too American’ just as Americans think it’s not ‘American enough’ to be ‘too Muslim’. Taqwacore seeks to turn around this false dichotomy. It’s okay not to feel American enough or Muslim enough,” says Kamel who doesn’t feel guilty about drinking or not praying.

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