The Taqwacores
Michael Muhammad Knight
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars
3.75
· 12 ratings · 257 pages · Published: 10 Apr 2005
A Muslim punk house in Buffalo, New York, inhabited by burqa-wearing "riot grrrls," 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 lives together, which mix sex, dope, and religion in roughly equal amounts, is centered around an Islamo-punk subculture called taqwacore, named for taqwa, an Arabic term meaning consciousness of the divine.
Originally published by the author on photocopiers and spiral-bound by hand, The Taqwacores has since been published in foreign translations, become the basis for two films, and is taugh in various colleges and universities as a "Catcher in the Rye for young Muslims."
Tagged as:
- religion 3
- islam 3
- contemporary 3
- spirituality 3
- lgbtq+ 2
- protagonists of colour 2
- coming of age 1
- psychological 1
- literary fiction 1
- Add topics
- format - reader age
- young adult 3
- book 1
- content warnings
- substance abuse 2