The novel's title combines “taqwa”, the Arabic word for "piety," with "hardcore," which is used to describe many genres of angry Western music.

For many young American Muslims, stigmatised by their peers after the September 11 attacks but repelled by both the Bush administration's reaction to the attacks and the rigid conservatism of many Muslim leaders, the novel became a blueprint for their lives.

The novel's Muslim characters include Rabeya, a riot girl who plays guitar onstage wearing a burqa and leads a group of men and women in prayer. There is also Fasiq, a pot-smoking skater, and Jehangir, a drunk.

Such acts -- playing Western music, women leading prayer, men and women praying together, drinking, smoking-- are considered haram, or forbidden, by millions of Muslims.

Knight was born an Irish Catholic in upstate New York and converted to Islam as a teenager. He studied at a mosque in Pakistan but became disillusioned with Islam and wrote "The Taqwacores" to mend the rift between his being an observant Muslim and an angry American youth. He found validation in the life of Muhammad, who instructed people to ignore their leaders, destroy their petty deities and follow only Allah.

After reading the novel, many Muslims e-mailed Knight, asking for directions to the next Muslim punk show. When thay were told that no such bands existed, some of them created their own, with names like Vote Hezbollah and Secret Trial Five. One band, the Kominas, wrote a song called Suicide Bomb the Gap, which became Muslim punk rock's first anthem.

... contd.