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Peter's Reviews > The Taqwacores
The Taqwacores
by
by
Check out the documentary Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam --It's fantastic. This book . . . not so much.
It's a coming of age story, but it never quite escapes from the juvenile. Through one of the central prophet-type punk characters, who is supposedly super-charismatic, Knight romanticizes the drunken philosophizing anyone can hear in college, romanticizes living in filth, smoking pot, breaking sh*t, listening to your favorite bands, yelling swear words at random strangers, and general adolescent restlessness. "F*ckin' epic," right? Oh, and by night, the characters get drunk and dream of creating an Islam that embraces the devout, but also the self-destructive, the profane, and the punk-rawk, man.
One redeeming quality of this book is that it can show Westerners the diversity within Islam. Through our American lens, we sometimes see certain aspects of Islam as repressive, so the view of Islamic culture from the U. S. seems to be that even though Muslims come from different countries, they must all practice exactly the same way, right? Wrong. There are a variety of interpretations of the Koran and the hadiths, and, just as with Western religions, people will shape it to fit their needs. Not all Muslims fast, and not all pray 5 times a day. There are gay Muslims, feminist Muslims, mystic Muslims, etc.
If this sounds intriguing, again, watch the documentary.
It's a coming of age story, but it never quite escapes from the juvenile. Through one of the central prophet-type punk characters, who is supposedly super-charismatic, Knight romanticizes the drunken philosophizing anyone can hear in college, romanticizes living in filth, smoking pot, breaking sh*t, listening to your favorite bands, yelling swear words at random strangers, and general adolescent restlessness. "F*ckin' epic," right? Oh, and by night, the characters get drunk and dream of creating an Islam that embraces the devout, but also the self-destructive, the profane, and the punk-rawk, man.
One redeeming quality of this book is that it can show Westerners the diversity within Islam. Through our American lens, we sometimes see certain aspects of Islam as repressive, so the view of Islamic culture from the U. S. seems to be that even though Muslims come from different countries, they must all practice exactly the same way, right? Wrong. There are a variety of interpretations of the Koran and the hadiths, and, just as with Western religions, people will shape it to fit their needs. Not all Muslims fast, and not all pray 5 times a day. There are gay Muslims, feminist Muslims, mystic Muslims, etc.
If this sounds intriguing, again, watch the documentary.
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
October 1, 2014
– Shelved
