# TAQWACORE WEBZINE

### And So Taqx at Sundance Ends

Posted by Taz on February 6, 2010 · 4 Comments

Crossposted from Taqx at Sundance. Read the entire adventure of Taz’s personal experience there – for full effect, start at the start.

It was my last day at Sundance, and the last screening of The Taqwacores. The bands had all left, most of cast had left, the punk rock house was clean again, and really just a condo again. I wore my bootleg praying man shirt, and walked with Dominic Rains, who wore his Jehangir green laced boots, and Bobby Naderi to the theater.

I sat by myself in the second row in a packed theater. Unlike the premier, I wasn’t surrounded by friends or the Taqwacore family. It was just me, up close and personal with the big screen.

I didn’t think I’d get emotional, but I did. I choked up four times in the movie, tears constantly brimming my eyes. Unlike the first time that I watched the movie, this time I was actually watching invested in the storyline of the movie. The first time I watched the movie I was trying to see if my favorite lines, or scenes from the book had made the cut; I was trying to catch inside jokes and overwhelmed by all the real life references to the real life bands. At the premiere I was surrounded by the laughter and comfort of friends. This time I watched it, I watched it for simply what it was, the story of Muslim punk kids struggling to find their place.

The movie opened with Basim’s voice singing Shahria Law in the opening credit, and took us into a journey of life as a Taqwacore. When Jehangir recited the shahadah on the rooftop of the punk house in response to Umar’s challenge, it brought tears to my eyes, reminding me of how as a Muslim, I too have had my faith questioned by other Muslims. When Fasiq was on the rooftop talking about how the bands had called from a gas station and were on their way to the punk house, I too was reminded of that giddy anticipation feeling whenever a taqwacore band was near. When Jehangir gave his khuthbah at jummah prayer at the punk house with that gonzo kind of fear and love, I felt it, cuz at some point in my life, I had felt it too. When Rabeya took her stand at the end of the movie, I clapped because it was metaphorically a stand that as women we were constantly struggling to be heard on. The movie was gritty, punk and raw and full of energy mixed with somber complexity. It felt like what I had pictured in my head. It felt like what I feel as a Taqwacore in real life.

This time I watched it, I appreciated it for what it was – the complex story of what it meant to be an American Muslim in a fantastical tale that had somehow become wrapped up in reality.

It had been an emotional week for me and I had barely begun to process the taqwacore at Sundance experience. I find it harder and harder to explain to people what it means to be taqwacore the deeper I get in the scene and the more complex the created culture gets.

Watching the movie again reminded me of the guy that had the questions at the premeire screening. He said, The Taqwacores is a piece of art, and what kind of message are we putting out there to non-Muslims through this art?

It irritated me to no end because to me, this isn’t about art. This is a created community, a peoples with a common culture. And this isn’t a piece of propaganda to distribute to non-Muslims so they know what it feels like to be us. This is for the kids like us, the one that stumbles across the film or the book, and finally feels like they belong. This is a piece of comfort for all the misfit lost Taqwacore kids.

And maybe that’s why I was emotional. It was the end of Taqwacore at Sundance, and I was getting in a car the next day for the long drive back to reality. The comfort and solace I felt in my taqwacore peers was fading fast, all of us spread back thin across the country. Our time together is always fleeting.

Till the next chapter. We’ll see what The Taqwacores will bring.

Mashallah to the movie. Inshallah to the scene.

+++

To read up on the rest of my Sundance adventure, check out Taqx at Sundance. Be sure to check out MTV Iggy for additional Sundance movie reviews, interviews with celebrities, and other Sundance stories that I collected along the way.

I wasn’t the only blogger on the scene – check out Daniela’s photos on flickr or her post on Mideast Youth; Natalie’s post on Taqwacores Make Pilgrimage to Sundance; Ari’s post on Suicide Girls and on The Gaza Stripper; lastly a live recording of the Epic Taqwacore punk show will be soon released from the folks at Cultural Sindicate.

+++

Tanzila “Taz” Ahmed is an activist and writer living in Los Angeles. She is the Founder of South Asian American Voting Youth (SAAVY), an aspiring novelist and a long-time blogger for the popular South Asian blog Sepia Mutiny.

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Filed under Editorial, Short Story, The Taqwacores · Tagged with Narrative, Review, Sundance, The Taqwacores Motion Picture

##### Comments

4 Responses to “And So Taqx at Sundance Ends”

1. Imran says:
   February 9, 2010 at 1:44 am

   Taz-

   I’ve been reading the blog with nervous trepidation; knowing that I couldn’t be there, I hoped it wouldn’t just make me feel worse about not being able to make it down. You managed to convey a lot about how I feel, a lot I wanted to know about what happened, and a lot about yourself in a short timespan, and that was awesome. I began to feel really bad about not being there, but you also made it clear that this movie, is just a movie- it can’t encapsulate taqwacore the same way some mullah on a hill can’t encapsulate islam… I don’t feel any less taqx for my absence. Great postings… Your closing summed it up. “Mashallah to the movie. Inshallah to the scene.”

   Beautiful.

   Reply
   - tazzystar says:
     February 9, 2010 at 2:50 am

     Thanks Imran. That means a lot and is really sweet. I wrote it keeping in mind people like you,, and trying to tell what I would want to know if I hadn’t been there. Glad it worked. Inshallah, we’ll see you at the next taqx event.

     Reply

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1. NEWS: Update: Muslim Punk Rock Media Explosion « Religion Compass Exchanges says:
   February 11, 2010 at 6:46 pm

   [...] After a wave of of attention in Summer 2009, the Muslim Punk Rock movement known as Taqwacore is back in the media spotlight. (Read the original post here) This time a religious studies news source, ReligionDispatches, offers two articles that explore this part-religious, part-artistic phenomenon. In Kill Your Patriarchs (found here) Religious Dispatches contributor Hussein Rashid interviews Michael Muhammad Knight, the so-called father of the Taqwacore movement. In 2003, Knight wrote and self-published a novel titled “Taqwacore” that found a widespread underground audience. Rashid provides a fascinating portrait of this American-convert who finds himself leading a movement of not only American Muslims but also a growing global music scene. Knight finds himself yet again at the center of a media explosion since the movie Taqwacore (based on Knight’s novel) debuted at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. In addition to the premiere at Sundance, Knight’s movement also celebrated the limited release of a documentary based on the novel. As a result of Taqwacore’s emergence from the underground, ReligionDispatches also posted a roundtable discussion “On Punks, the Media, and the Meaning of “Muslim.” To read the discussion, click here. To connect to the Taqwacore Webzine, click here. [...]

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2. Composing Master Mind of Omar Fadel « TAQWACORE WEBZINE says:
   November 8, 2010 at 2:44 am

   [...] The Taqwacores feature film Sundance Film Festival debut was back in January. So much has happened since the adventures in the Taqx punk house in the snowy valley of Park City. It was in the house that I first met the illustrious Omar Fadel. Poised and soft spoken, it was [...]

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