The Taqwacores

A Muslim punk house in Buffalo, New York, inhabited by burqa-wearing riot girls, mohawked Sufis, straightedge Sunnis, Shi’a skinheads, Indonesian skaters, Sudanese rude boys, gay Muslims, drunk Muslims, and feminists. Their living room hosts parties and prayers, with a hole smashed in the wall to indicate the direction of Mecca. Their life together mixes sex, dope, and religion in roughly equal amounts, expressed in devotion to an Islamo-punk subculture, “taqwacore,” named for taqwa, an Arabic term for consciousness of the divine.
Originally self-published on photocopiers and spiralbound by hand, The Taqwacores has now come to be read as a manifesto for Muslim punk rockers and a “Catcher in the Rye for young Muslims.”

There are three different cover colors; red, white, and blue.

A Muslim punk house in Buffalo, New York, inhabited by burqa-wearing riot girls, mohawked Sufis, straightedge Sunnis, Shi’a skinheads, Indonesian skaters, Sudanese rude boys, gay Muslims, drunk Muslims, and feminists. Their living room hosts parties and prayers, with a hole smashed in the wall to indicate the direction of Mecca. Their life together mixes sex, dope, and religion in roughly equal amounts, expressed in devotion to an Islamo-punk subculture, “taqwacore,” named for taqwa, an Arabic term for consciousness of the divine.
Originally self-published on photocopiers and spiralbound by hand, The Taqwacores has now come to be read as a manifesto for Muslim punk rockers and a “Catcher in the Rye for young Muslims.”

There are three different cover colors; red, white, and blue.

 (23 customer reviews)

I really wanted to like this book, but just couldn't. I guess I had higher expectations - these characters were just typical college students who just wanted to party and behave irresponsibly, just give in to their desires, and didn't want to follow any 'rules' - Islamic or otherwise.

There were plenty of complaints about the Qu'ran, the Prophet (s), hadiths, hell and heaven, ICNA conferences, imam and mosques and MSAs, Islam's treatment of women, etc. While I was sympathetic towards a good number of their complaints, reading the same angry rants over and over got very repetitive and tiresome - especially since I didn't find any of the characters appealing, or the plot interesting.

Now, maybe that's because I don't like punk music.

I was expecting much more of a political slant - how about throwing rotten sandwiches at the gleaming car of that corporate executive? How about spitting in the face of that slimy politician, or harassing that military...Read more

WOW. This is one of the most brilliant books i've ever read! Who would have thought that two things like Islam and Punk rock could ever overlap, let alone be combined in such a genius way. From the radical feminist in full burqa(her burqa is covered with band patches!), to the straightedge punk with Qur'an verses tattooed on him, to the mohawked drunk punk who plays the call to prayer on electric guitar from the roof of the house...this book is just genius in every detail! The only problem i can imagine is that he uses A LOT of arabic terms and Islamic references which may be hard to understand if you don't have background knowledge about Islam. But READ IT ANYWAY! Find somebody you can ask if you need the terms defined for you. This book is worth the time! (p.s.the word "fasiq" means "pervert") Not exactly for the conservative thinker...BEWARE, you will need to think outside the box on this one. Though the end result is something that is unexplainably...blasphemously reverent,...Read more

This book wasn't my first exposure to punk (I highly recommend 'Please Kill Me') or my first exposure to Islam, but I had a lot of curiosity about how such seemingly incompatible cultures could blend.

Having read it, I'm still not sure they do. I can't imagine American punks bringing any aspect of Christian practice into their music as many in this book are determined to do, but I'd guess a lot of that has to do with being a minority in a larger culture which sometimes barely tolerates it.

In the end, I'm not any more drawn to punk or Islam than I was at the beginning. Both have elements embedding within them that just don't appeal to me, but I found myself liking most of the Muslim punks I met in these pages, and while I wouldn't join them, I can sympathize a bit more with them, and I think I have a clearer view of Islam. I wish luck to those who want to innovate, no matter what their brothers and sisters think.