The most important thing to say about The Taqwacores is that Michael Muhammad Knight has filled the book with a group of young engaging characters. They don’t do much, and nothing much happens, but I liked the characters so much I didn’t care. A house full of young American muslims struggles to reconcile their religion with their personal values. Mostly not very devout, the youth are into the punk scene. One of them regales his housemates with tales of taqwacore bands from his days on the west coast as he tries to set up a giant punk show played by the legendary taqwacores. The punk ethos collides with islamic tradition and theology.

(Full review at my blog) ( )

Yusef's parents didn't want him living in the dorms, so he rooms in a house with a bunch of other Muslims. But what his parents don't know is that these Muslims include a burqa-wearing feminist, a drunk, and a pothead, and even the most "traditional" member of the group is a punk kid covered in tattoos.

This is basically the story of how Yusef's faith changes over the course of his time living there, and despite the fact that it's specifically about a Muslim guy, the story resonated with me coming from a Christian background as well.

The book assumes an audience of Muslims, so there are a lot of Arabic terms thrown around with no explanation, but I found it easy enough to follow despite that. (And I liked that you're just thrown into that and everything isn't explained.)

Although the author is white (he converted to Islam as a teenager), the characters are almost all people of color (there's one minor character who's white), mostly East and Southeast Asians. I really loved the characters, especially Rabeya and Jehangir.

It's also being made into a movie, which I'm really excited about. ( )

Bought 18 Aug 2008 - Amazon

Not quite sure what to say about this one.

This is a cult novel centering on a group of young, American-based Muslims. Punks, riotgirrls, StraightEdge, gay, homeless; they are all self-declared as Muslims and engage in a "lively" confrontation with Islam as they negotiate their way through life in a double (or even triple) culture. Noteworthy for introducing the term and some invented bands into the world, which then took life of their own and became an Islamic Punk movement, this is a challenging book in many ways. As befits both a cult novel and one working within a punk ethos, there are some shocking scenes and sets of dialogue. Also some concepts which are not exactly common parlance when discussing Islam.

This is a UK published book and the publishers here censored some of the more - well, blasphemous I'm afraid, passages. These are marked in the text and it is quite easy to find the "offending" passages on the internet. They are quite shocking, although when viewed within the context of the novel, hm, is appropriate the right word to use, not sure. Given what happened to the Danish cartoonists and the publishers of the wife of Mohammed book, I can see why these passages were excised. NOT that I am keen on censorship in any form, of course.

It is an enthralling and well-written book, and even includes a spot of BookCrossing, when the protagonists hide a Muslim Sci-Fi novel in a Mosque bookshelf, but I can see that a lot of people (Muslim and non-) would be offended by the content and ideology expressed in it. I couldn't put it down, but felt a bit uneasy reading it. ( )

A bizarre and lovely book that has inspired an actual Taqwacore movement after it came out. The book might be hard to follow in places for those without a strong background in Islamic history and culture, but a worthwhile read and an interesting look into the lives of those who style themselves as progressive or modern Muslims (Muslim Wake-Up! comes to mind).