# TAQWACORE WEBZINE

### Redefining Punk, My Way

Posted by Taz on October 17, 2009 · 34 Comments

Real punk is gutter punk, the kind of punk where you go dumpster diving for your next meal, are straight edge until you find a the tail end of a joint on the ground to smoke, and wear the same black jeans and metal studded jean vest with black and white patches of your favorite extinct 1970s crust bands. This is what real punk is supposed to be, right? Live in the streets, fight in the streets and died in the streets. We don’t vote, we believe in anarchy. We don’t give a fuck, we are punk rock.

I always found this contradictory because to me, the people I saw in punk spaces were primarily white. Contradictory because to me, white people epitomized privilege. And how real could ‘gutter’ punk be, if they were white?

When I first started going to punk shows, I thought the music was wild. I was in my teens, it was the late 90s and ska/punk fusion was just about to blow up in Southern California. It was right before OC punk manifested into OC punk, back before Warped Tour became pop and back when Incubus, Hoobustank, Dashboard Confessionals and Blink 182 were opening acts to Homegrown, Goldfinger, The Ataris and Save Ferris. Back when Fat Wreck Chords was the only label I bought from and Travis Barker was still the drummer for The Aquabats.
In this space I found an energy that for the first time reflected me. I was always the ‘weird’ girl in my group of friends, because of religion, race, and creed or whatever. I didn’t fit into a normative box. I was also the hyper kid that got high off of sugar and bounced off the walls with ridiculous ferocity. At punk shows, I’d be skanking in the circle pit, I was the girl on the front railing singing along, and I’d crowd surf my way to get around the pit. I found my people. But at the same time I didn’t find my people. I’d be that one brown girl, never quite fitting in. I never made friends at the punk shows, never found people that really understood all of me. With my circle of (white girl-) friends that I’d go to shows with, they didn’t understand why I fasted for Ramadan, why I wasn’t allowed to go to school dances, why I had to be home by sunset so that I could pray Maghrib. They didn’t get why I wasn’t allowed to date, why I couldn’t wear tank tops or shorts, and why they couldn’t bring their boyfriends to my house for my birthday parties. I didn’t know that what I was feeling was “marginalized” or that my narrative of self was being pushed to the boundaries or that I was experiencing implicit subtextual racism. I didn’t learn those words till after college and I started work as a community organizer professionally. At the time, I just felt lost, and that I was just trying to be myself, but that no one around me was letting me be me.

Over the years, my punk rock-ness has manifested itself intrinsically. I’m straight edge, that’s punk. I like making stuff, doing it on my own, and hate having other people do things for me. I’m DIY, that’s punk. People aren’t listening to my peoples politics and are beating up brown people in hate crimes? They think that all Muslims are responsible for 9/11? And the government doesn’t have my back to protect my rights? Well fuck it. I’m going to organize as many brown youth as I can to register to vote and create a political voice that can’t be ignored. Fuck them, I’m punk. No one believes that a 24 yr old can do start a national organization on her own? Well I did, in 2004 I started a non-profit and ran a national campaign on $9,000. No one believe a pierced Desi girl could do it, but I did. No one’s going to tell stories of what life is like on my margins? Fuck it, I’m punk. I’m going to write it. Being punk means rising up even if people hold you down. The white man can’t hold you down, or in academia speak — white systematic oppression — can’t hold you down.

Punks aren’t about the poverty, exclusively. At least to me, not real punk. It’s about being disempowered and giving voice to the voiceless. It’s about ideas of power and not having any. This is how I defined it for myself – being able to bring a punk energy and attitude everything I did, particularly in empowering a community of people. That became my deen. To be the voice of real punk isn’t about coming straight from the gutters to give legitimacy. Classism and poverty are not the only forms of privilege. The privilege of race and the privilege of freedom of religion are very real privileges that mainstream punk rockers have not had to deal with. But as Taqwacore, it’s something that all of us have had to deal with. Every single one of us.

I write all this because I am disturbed by the notion that to be a legitimate voice in punk space, you had to come out of a trailer and prove your poverty and gutter-ness. That if you have financial privilege of parents, that you cannot be real punk (as was mentioned on this comment thread at Sepia Mutiny). Speaking as the product of a blue collared family, I think that is a stupid notion. I feel that statement is tainted by white supremacy notions, and marginalizes the very real disempowerment experiences of racial oppression and religious freedoms that my community exists in. It’s feeding into the model minority myth. It’s like saying, “Wow, you just got beat up for being Muslim? Well that’s okay, you aren’t that poor. It’s the poor people that should really be speaking out about getting beat up.”

While we are on the topic, anarchy punks really piss me off. Also, ‘I don’t give a shit about society’ punks piss me off. Those two concepts of being punk are rooted in white privilege. The first founding fathers of this nation were white, and the only people that had voting privileges were land owning white men. Even after women got the right to vote in the 1920s, I still didn’t have the right to vote. I had to wait until the Luce-Celler Act of 1946 to give me as an “Indian” person the right to vote. And I bet even then, I couldn’t go vote in a lot of states until the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. We (women/brown/Muslim, in my case) had a long struggle to gain that right, and I’ll be damned if anyone tries to take that right away. I made it a life’s goal to work to empower a community, whether, Muslim, South Asian, female, pan-Asian or People of Color. I don’t think that makes me any less punk.

I guess that what it comes down to. Punk is how we define it, Taqwacore is how we define it, and fuck it if people try to contradict it otherwise. I finally found the space that allowed me to be me. I didn’t “find myself” after discovering Taqwacore the book, or bonding with the Taqx people. After all, “life is about creating yourself, not finding yourself,” has been a life mantra of mine. I did find a like-minded community building and struggling around the same issues I was. We are defining what it means to be Taqwacore, together. Whether we have different class backgrounds, races, or religiosity, the empathy of understanding commonality amongst this posse is not lost. This empathy translates into a building of bridges with all sorts of communities including those that are not punk/Muslim/brown. And to me, that is how Taqwacore is redefining what it means to be punk, in a whole new brilliant way.

Fuck it if people try to tell me otherwise.

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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##### Comments

34 Responses to “Redefining Punk, My Way”

1. eskimobscure says:
   October 17, 2009 at 4:23 pm

   I love you Taz for bringing this up. I can def. relate myself to you. Punk-rock scene is attractive, but it’s not really a place for me either. It’s all so white, and they don’t really understand me. I went to a punk house to make a mark of Taqwacore, but trust me, it was hard !

   Taqwacore is a place of redefining punk. Our punk with alot of possibilites.

   Thanks for inspiration.

   Regards,

   Yumna Sheikh

   Reply
2. Dubael says:
   October 17, 2009 at 4:35 pm

   I couldn’t agree more with the author.

   Sure I come from a ‘privileged white Canadian Family’, that didn’t stop me from being poor. I’ve couch surfed both as a youth and an adult, and I’ve been the visible minority both in Mexico as a child and in Ft. Chippewayan Alberta as an 18 year old.

   The attitudes Taz denounces are just as jingoistic, supercilious and elitist as those of the ‘founding fathers’ that they rail against.

   The fact that you work for a living and don’t dumpster dive doesn’t devalue you, just as being unemployed and living off the street doesn’t make you sub-human.

   We each have our own paths to follow, some trod well worn routes, others the track less travelled, still others forge a new route, none is more or less valid.

   Exclusivity can be a toxic drug, it has its cachet, but it intoxicates and can lead you into all sorts of evil. Be proud of who you are, but don’t do that at the expense of others. If they can’t appreciate you, they’re a waste of time and space. Leave them, for the dead can bury the dead.

   I’ll get off the soapbox now.
   Thank you Taz for your wisdom

   Reply
3. Momina Sheikh says:
   October 17, 2009 at 4:50 pm

   After reading this post I learnt four new things:

   - Taqwacore is redifining what punkers can be:
   you can be brown, yellow, muslim, asian, african, whatever…but still be a Punk!

   - That I am being “marginalized” and that I am experiencing implicit subtextual racism.

   - Real punk is gutter punk

   - and why people get scared of word “punk” or punkers…specially when they hear “punk muslim”.

   Probably because they have only seen “real punk” which is gutter punk as you explained!

   Thumbs up for you Taz.
   Keep writing!

   Cheers.

   Reply
4. Dubael says:
   October 17, 2009 at 5:04 pm

   Just another thought, I get suspicious when I’m at some show and all I see is people the same colour as me. Now being a Canuckistani, I’m used to there being a dearth of different ethnicities outside the larger urban centres, but seeing as more than half of my siblings are Mexican I just find that sad.
   I can’t speak about the Excited States of Mary-Kaye, but from my perspective, any ‘movement’ be it Punk, Politics or philosophy that excludes people on the basis of what is really ‘an accident of birth’ is wrong (this excludes those groups that work to unite those of an excluded minority/ethnicity endeavouring to fight for the justice of their inclusion, obviously).
   You have no choice over the gender you were born with, the ethnicity you were born into, or the faith you were raised in, et cetera. People who insist on shitting on someone for being different proves only one thing; not that the shitter is better than the shat upon, but that the shitter is full of shit.

   Reply
5. marwan says:
   October 18, 2009 at 12:04 pm

   unfortunately, while this post brings up a lot of valid points about race in america, a lot of them are very introductory points in social theory. for some reason, it seems like a lot of activists have a hard time thinking outside of the black & white paradigm (no pun intended), and always choose either racism or classism as their main issue, when in reality, they’re not mutually exclusive and can be equally as damning.

   your experience in the punk scene is far different than mine. while this may be the case on the west coast or on the east coast, the punk scene in chicago (especially on the southside) tends to be largely latino. as the birthplace of “chicano” punk, ie. los crudos, it’s always been a hotbed of identity politics. and believe it or not, a lot of these kids are anarchopunks AND people of color.

   in the bigger picture, when we’re talking about the punk scene, we have to take into consideration that punk is much larger than american punk. and in places like mexico city, the punk scene is comprised of people who are both non-white and poor.

   the fact is this: white or not, all of us in the first world benefit from imperialism/colonialism in a global context. our priviledge in america is an amalgamation of race and class. we benefit from the genocide of the native americans because our homes are built on their graves. we benefit from multinational corporations’ private armies in baghdad because we pay less for gas when we fuel our tour vans. and we benefit from sweatshops in singapore because our band merch makes us more profits. in fact, a lot of mexican punks (from mexico) laugh at the racial griping of american-born chicano punks, because everything is a lot easier to do here, from starting a band to touring, etc.

   i know a lot of kids in the middle east that have been wanting to start bands, but they have a hard time, because, to start with, they can’t afford the instruments. over there, those who have bands tend to be the rich kids who have time and money to play at revolutionary.

   i think both racism and classism play a huge role in oppression. for example, how can a rich brown person cry about oppression of he’s never gone a day in his life without food in his stomach? and how can a poor white person cry about oppression of he’ll never be the one beaten by the cops for mistaken identity?

   Reply
   - Dubael says:
     October 18, 2009 at 2:11 pm

     Marwan,
     I read your comment and realised that I too fell into that same trap, despite my being Canuckistani, having Mexican Mestizos for siblings et al.
     So often the perceived paradigm predominates the ‘conversation’ that it obfuscates the reality of the situation.
     Does this invalidate Taz’s experience? No, she is responding to the situation around her. Is she wrong to limit her topic to colour versus white? Only if she is aware that there are more sides to the story. I don’t think this is the case here.
     However, that is one of the benefits of this forum, we can share our experiences of the situation, giving our take on the ‘story from here’ to flesh out the narrative and broaden the canvas to include more than the dichotomised conception.
     You make cogent points regarding how (just about anyone) in North America or the ‘West’ is privileged compared to those in the ‘developing’ world where poverty means choosing food over music, simply because there is no other choice.
     We each have our hurdles in life and we often don’t consider how lucky we actually are, if we bothered to compare our lives to those of others who don’t have the opportunities that we have.
     When you have no choice about food, or shelter, or survival, things like making music can seem frivolous, and yet, I know that those who live in places where food, shelter and even survival are never certain still can sing. Only the mute are denied that gift. The first instrument humanity had was the voice, it is the first instrument every child uses, before he or she learns to speak, there is the song of birth, Vagitus “the cry of a newborn” from the latin Vagire “to Wail”. It is the primal sound of life and struggle.
     I’m rambling again… but there you go *relinquishes soapbox*

     Reply
6. Cihan Kaan says:
   October 18, 2009 at 4:11 pm

   @tazzy, great article, your punk influences were different than mine though. Have you heard the song “Unity” by Op Ivy?
   @Marwan, you paint a picture of chicano punks vs mexican ones, have u seen “Wassup Rockers”?
   @Dubael, you really touched on the idea that music above all things must come from the heart and yes we need rich people in punk rock, they help pay the bills.

   On a personal tip, my friends are all dope and they are always different religions and races. Some are rich and some are poor. We fight, we break up, we get back together, unity is essential.

   Nice summary from Crass, “White Punks on Hope”

   “Punk was once an answer to years of crap,
   A way of saying no where we’d always said yep.
   But the moment we saw a way to be free,
   They invented a dividing line, street credibility.
   The qualifying factors are politics and class,
   Left wing macho street fighters willing to kick arse.
   They said because of racism they’d come out on the street.
   It was just a form of fascism for the socialist elite.
   Bigotry and blindness, a marxist con,
   Another clever trick to keep us all in line.
   Neat little labels to keep us all apart,
   To keep us all divided when the troubles start.”

   read the rest of lyrics to “White Punks on Hope” by Crass
   http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/crass/whitepunksonhope.html

   Reply
   - Dubael says:
     October 18, 2009 at 6:14 pm

     Cihan Kaan, I’d quote Jehangir from “The Taqwacores” but I’ve loaned the book out to my daughter and though she’s probably finished it, she’s notorious for not returning my books *laughs* I guess it’s karma paying me back for borrowing so many of my father’s books and keeping them *grins*

     So I’ll just reiterate what I recall him saying toward the end of the book, just before the show, when people were concerned about the hardcore straight edge attitude of Bilal’s Boulder. He made an impassioned speech about inclusivity, how excluding someone from their scene because they didn’t exactly fit in or accept everything was wrong, how that was the uptight antithesis of what he was going for, of what he saw Taqwacore as being.

     Its one of the more wonderful things that I’ve read in the past year. The book itself is what introduced to Taqwacore. I’m from a generation that saw the Sex Pistols when they were just starting out, but my interest in Punk only began recently, Green Day’s “American Idiot” being the genesis of my dawning interest, and taking my kids to the concert when the tour hit the Toronto area renewing my introduction to the genre. So as far as Taqwacore, I’d no clue, I didn’t even know that Muslims listened to punk, suspecting that it would be considered Haram (even though I didn’t know the word at the time).

     Reading The Taqwacores was a joy. It was a glimpse into a world I knew nothing about and one that fueled my curiosity.

     As some of you may have guessed by now, I’m not Muslim, however the fact that I feel welcomed here shows that the misconceptions of the ‘West’ are just that.

     The fact that I don’t listen to Punk exclusively shouldn’t matter either, and from what you’ve said Cihan Kaan, I take it that it doesn’t. Labels should help us understand something, not be cordons that lock us off from something.

     Oh… and I’m happy to help with the bills when I can *grin*

     Reply
7. Imran says:
   October 18, 2009 at 4:20 pm

   Taz,

   I’m again in awe, as I usually am following your passionate postings.

   I agree with a lot of what you’re saying… to me punk is a hell of a lot more than poor. Having experienced extreme wealth and poverty in my lifetime (I’ve starved in Pakistan, and I used to live next to the dude who owns Wal-Mart) I know that punk is more than a financial condition- you can’t be born into punk- you have to be baptized by the wave of passion that it brings you. For me, Punk is more than just fauxhawks and spikes (although I’m not discounting these… I happen to like my spikes!)- punk is spiritual, punk is intellectual, punk is transcendentalist, punk is rebellion- but not a quiet one. My boy Gandhi was a punk, Muhammad was a punk, Thoreau was a punk, Vonnegut was a punk. I vividly remember comparing Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” to Jello’s “Kill the Poor” on my AP English Language essay…

   Gutter punk doesn’t have to be the gutters of the street- it can be found in the gutters of the soul as well. Skanking and whirling dervishes are all just part of the same fucking circle pit of redemption and rebellion.
   Taz, the work you do is inspiring, both spiritually and politically. Punk is about rebellion, and it is about being the voice of the voiceless. I’m not a woman, but I am an Islamic Feminist. I’m not gay, but I’d build a gay mosque. I’m not an illegal immigrant, but I’ve led marches against racism of all kinds.
   I agree with Marwan in the sense that classicism and racism are not mutally exclusive, but I feel both are just as anti-punk as the other. My parents finacial situation really has no effect on me- even if I were rich, I still wouldn’t be able to do a lot of things I’d want to because of my parents. Punk is not a measure of a bank account- saying so buys into the classicism that punk is fighting. Punk isn’t just wearing leathers and sleeping in doorways; saying that you can’t wear a blazer and be a punk is just as conformist as the rest of society.

   It can work both ways though: poor punks who only relate with other poor punks are the same as my desi parents who only legitimize other desis in America: I’m not necessarily going to connect better with someone regardless of whether or not they’re punk, Taqx, poor, or South-Asian.

   On another note- most of the “anarchist” punks I know simply use their anarchism as a badly disguised euphemism for ignorant apathy. I’m not saying it’s not a legitimate form of expression, but with all the anarchists I’ve known, it’s more about just not giving a shit. If you don’t care about your rights, who the fuck will? We’re the marginalized, we’re the minorities- we have the most to lose. So props to Taz for SAAVY and for making her voice heard- fuck it, that’s punk.

   Reply
   - Dubael says:
     October 18, 2009 at 6:24 pm

     Powerful stuff Imran

     Your mentioning the blazer reminded me of a punker I saw the other year, he had a bright red mohawk, piercings, was wearing the ‘trad’ tight plaid pants with chains and suspenders, docs et al… and a cheque blazer.

     This guy was obviously punk, and he was dressed to show it. I didn’t get a chance to compliment him on his apparel but he made me smile and he made my day.

     Now its ‘silly question’ time, excuse my ignorance but what does desi mean? To me, it is either the name of Lucille Ball’s husband, who played Ricky Richardo on television or a contraction for a designated driver.

     I was going to ask ‘why build a gay mosque’ when it struck me, ‘because not all masjids will be accepting of the concept of homosexuality, never mind homosexuals who are open about their sexuality.’ Sadly, there will be a long road to travel in that regard, but the first step may require building a mosque that accepts people regardless of their ‘differences’.

     Thank you for your words

     Reply
     - tazzystar says:
       October 18, 2009 at 6:37 pm

       http://www.wiretapmag.org/activism/33078/

       Link to an article I wrote – Desi Power Online – for Desi definition…

     - Dubael says:
       October 18, 2009 at 6:56 pm

       Thank you Tazzystar, a great article and I did finally answer my own (unasked) question “Okay, now that I know what a Desi is, where does the word come from?” by plugging the word into Wikipedia (‘The Ultimate Suppository of Human Knowledge’ as the author of Rock, Paper, Cynic put it: http://rockpapercynic.com/index.php?date=2009-05-15 ) and learned that it word was originally from the Sanskrit for “from the country” or “of the country”. *shrugs* What can I say, my dad was an English teacher, I don’t remember him teaching me about etymology but I’m a nut for it now.

   - Yassin merrigan says:
     November 24, 2009 at 4:05 pm

     Anarchism is not about apathy, it’s about hard work simultaniously building the framework for a free community while you work to tear down the racist, statist, omniphobic structure that oppsesses everyone to varying degree, whether white, brown, Muslim, kafir, man, woman, hell, even the rich aren’t trully free, just more free than most.

     Reply
8. marwan says:
   October 18, 2009 at 4:53 pm

   i also think that some sort of distinction must be made between anarcho-punk and activist anarchism, which is fairly different.

   id like to expound on that dervish point, but i don’t have too much time right now…

   Reply
   - Dubael says:
     October 18, 2009 at 6:26 pm

     True, and I’d like to hear (or read) what you have to say on the subject, but time is the one factor that doesn’t always suit us.

     I hope you find the time at some point to return and share your insights.

     Sincerely
     Bear

     Reply
9. tazzystar says:
   October 18, 2009 at 5:39 pm

   I don’t really have much to add – I’m just appreciative of this space and the different unique backgrounds that we come from. Our respective stories are unique and combined they make a community – and I’m interested to hear now how other people came to this space.

   I think I could write a whole book on this topic but my post was reactive to a particularly negative and divisive comment on the other site. And thus far more narrow in scope.

   This comment thread here though – it’s exactly what i was seeking when I meant a like-minded community. Like – minded enough to get into the good deeper conversations.

   Reply
   - Dubael says:
     October 18, 2009 at 6:34 pm

     Well Tazzystar, thank you.

     I’ve really enjoyed reading your post and the comment thread that it engendered.

     To answer your curiosity with regards to “how other people came to this space” I did a web search in the aftermath of reading “The Taqwacores” by Michael Muhammad Knight which I heard about during an interview with him and Omar Majeed on the radio show “Q” on CBC radio while I was working. A couple of months later I was able to get my hands on a copy and everything proceeded from there.

     I’d be interested in reading a book on this topic by you, so there’s one vote for you to pursue the idea.

     Once again, thank you for sharing your thoughts and insights. You make the world a more interesting place and I, for one, appreciate that.

     Sincerely
     Bear

     Reply
10. the man says:
    October 18, 2009 at 7:48 pm

    This conversation on the thread is starting to remind me of this article. http://www.scribd.com/doc/5219080/Obscuring-the-Importance-of-Race

    “So strong is this expectation of holding center-stage that even when a time and place are specifically designated for members of a non-privileged group to be central, members of the dominant group will often attempt to take back the pivotal focus. They are stealing the center – with a complete lack of self-consciousness.”

    Reply
11. marwan says:
    October 19, 2009 at 12:43 am

    the one thing i’d also like to comment on is “pity parties”….

    in my experience in activist circles, there’s always this kind of race-to-the-bottom of sorts, where people begin to pride themselves on showing how much more oppressed they are than the other people participating in the discussion and how “you guys just don’t understand what it’s like to be me.” i find this to be trivial at best as it distracts people from developing true solidarity or empathy and working on forging strategies for collaboration and improvement.

    as for the comment left by “the man,” i’d like to know who his comment is directed towards… who is the dominant group in all this (taqwacore and desis?)? the dominant group in the punk scene? white people? what are you referring to specifically?

    Reply
    - Dubael says:
      October 19, 2009 at 1:55 am

      Oh yeah, I know that type, as a lapsed Jew I’ve had a gut full and I was only a full on member for less than an handful of years on that front.

      Don’t get me wrong, I’m no apostate, I’ll run down my own country (or any other) on its failings, because nations and faiths are not above contempt, or more precisely constructive criticism… I just realised that after all was said and done, I found that my conversion to Judaism was done under a misapprehension on my part. There is much that is good and noble about Judaism, as there is in any faith.

      Point is, the pity party is an all to easy trap to fall into, and for those who revel in it, an evil that corrupts the soul, not only of the person but any community or organisation that person associates with.

      I’ve found that asking the ‘individual’ in question ‘so… what are YOU going to do about it?’ it tends to shut them up… or motivate them to reconsider their position and possibly, just possibly, do something constructive about it.

      It is trivial and it is pointless. Sometimes it is just low self esteem, but in the ‘race to the bottom’ nonsense it is egotism of the most destructive narcissistic kind and pathetic to boot. I agree with you Marwan, and at worst it is a destructive and counter productive waste of energy … did I mention narcissism? Yes I did.

      As to the comment left by “the Man” I took it to be a up front comment about how even with the best of intentions, the liberal left (or which ever group is endeavouring to promote egalitarian values from the comfort and protection of the ivory tower of privileged) has to watch itself and safe guard itself from the foibles of slipping into the role it seeks to undermine and change.

      A Canadian point, I recall an Islamic Feminist commenting on the myopic attitude of Canadian Feminism, as led by June Callwood, that all women HAD to be free of the traditional entrapments of their traditional cultures. The speaker (whose name eludes me after all this time) pointed out that wearing a burka and niqāb was in a way empowering for her as she had to be dealt with as an unknown ‘quantity’ not prejudged by her looks or other such ephemera, it was hearing that point of view that made me realise just how obtuse even an ‘enlightened’ movement can be. What is ‘liberation’ for some is oppression for others.

      Recently, in Canada a prominent Islamic group has come against the wearing of the برقع‎ burqu‘, حجاب hijab and نقاب niqāb, and asked the Government of Canada to promulgate legislation to that effect. This of course has caused a reaction among a variety of respondents both traditionalists and Islamic Feminists who value the traditional garments for the above related reasons.

      Personally, with the exception of exposing a person’s face for the purpose of legal requirements, photo identification means squat if there’s no face to go with it, I see no reason for someone in a multicultural society like Canada to not adhere to their cultural traditions. I fail to see how wearing such garments is a threat to the national security of Canada or any other nation.

      Then again, I could be accused (accurately even) of being a sentimentalist with a fondness for the ‘quaint’ customs of minorities. Mind you, I wouldn’t be so crass as to call the traditions of any culture ‘quaint’ nor any ethnicity a minority, once again, there’s that preposterous predisposition of the ‘ruling majority’ to refer to someone else as a minority, which to me is just what the essay ‘The Man’ referred to, mentions as being a pitfall.

      Okay I’m rambling on again, I need to shut up and get off the soap box, thank you for letting me run on.

      Salaam
      Bear

      Reply
      - Dubael says:
        October 19, 2009 at 1:56 am

        Lord love a duck but I did blather

    - the man says:
      October 19, 2009 at 2:25 am

      The link was directed to the white non-muslim man (Dubael) commenting on the thread and how he is dominating the conversation (ten comments total) to be all about being enlightened by this exotic space. Read the full article. It’s about you, Dubael.

      Reply
      - Dubael says:
        October 19, 2009 at 2:44 am

        Thank you, I will.

      - Dubael says:
        October 19, 2009 at 3:30 am

        Thank you for sharing the link to the article, it is an interesting and insightful piece, and yes, I’ve been verbose here, if an apology is required I gladly offer it up.
        Sincerely
        Bear

12. dubael says:
    October 20, 2009 at 7:43 am

    And now…

    The thirteenth comment by White imperialist as he pushes the domination of an open forum even further.

    The Man chastised me for dominating the Conversation and I do sincerely apologise for being enthusiastic and wanting to engage in dialogue at every opportunity this past weekend.

    However, I was aware that I was posting in response to every comment that appeared and endeavoured to make light of my excessive enthusiasm.

    I got to thinking after I posted my offer of apology and realised that at no point did I say that I was excited “to be all about being enlightened by this exotic space.” I don’t feel that this place is exotic. It is interesting and refreshing, but hardly exotic.
    As for “being enlightened” I confess some puzzlement. I was enjoying sharing my thoughts in what I understood to be an open forum. I wasn’t aware that as “the white non-muslim man” I was suppose to be excluded, nor that it was wrong of me to participate.

    If I am mistaken, I’d appreciate some clarification.
    Thank you
    Sincerely
    George Woodruff

    Reply
13. sena says:
    October 20, 2009 at 4:00 pm

    thanks for your post marwan.

    dubael you are taking up a lot of space, chill the fuck out

    Reply
14. tabzy says:
    October 25, 2009 at 4:17 pm

    i actually love you.
    no, REALLY i do.

    because right now, i’m that one brown girl at all the underground punk/ska gigs. i’ve made a few friends, but none of them really get me. they respect that i ‘do the muslim thing’ but theres a barrier there that just never seems to go down.

    reading this has realised that maybe, just maybe, my life won’t suck like this forever.

    Reply
    - Imran says:
      October 27, 2009 at 11:08 pm

      @ Tabzy

      Yeah- I know what you mean. It’s a weird mix. Last punk show i went to, I got hit in the head with a bottle.

      But they pulled me back up, and bought me a drink. And that’s how it is.

      Reply
15. Prop Anon says:
    November 12, 2009 at 3:14 am

    Great piece Taz.
    This is why I think Comedy
    seems to be the best tool when
    getting into Identity Politics.
    This is not to down play struggle
    I can tell you stories
    I’m sure you can tell me some too.
    I just gotta give props to Taz for telling her
    story, and everyone addin on.

    Lastly, Fuck Punk. Fuck Hip-Hop
    Fuck the words. Let’s make something new
    PEACE!

    Reply
    - Taz says:
      November 13, 2009 at 12:36 pm

      Thanks friend.

      Reply
16. Nayagan says:
    December 3, 2009 at 6:48 pm

    I am the white supremacist dum-dum who left the comment on the SM thread that has apparently vexed the author a great deal. I’m not sure why.

    I lived through the consequences of people taken to activism of the most fundamental sort–apart from society and anything else. look up http://www.yogaville.org

    As far as activist ‘credibility’ goes, i have it in lorry loads–15 years as a Yogavillian would cure anyone of the urge to slap their own back for moving out there and shaking a fist at the great invisible whitey-white hand which apparently caused the rapine and murderous Singhalese rioters (in 1983) to prompt my mother’s emigration to America.

    Reply
    - tazzystar says:
      December 3, 2009 at 7:37 pm

      I don’t understand what your comment has to do with this thread and to me it is incoherent.

      I wasn’t attacking how much of an activist you were- I was attacking how you were attacking how much of “punk” this community is. I don’t really give a rats ass about how poor you are, how rich you are, how much activism you have under your belt, how much street cred you have.

      The point of the post is don’t judge. I’m not judging you, Nayagan, for not being an activist, I’m saying that you are judging. And by the process of “judging” and placing value, you fall into the trap of the white supremacist system even if your not white.

      You obviously missed the point of the piece. The point is, you can’t put me in a box. You can’t put this community in a box.

      Reply
      - Sisyphus says:
        December 7, 2009 at 10:21 pm

        Observe how many times Taz refers to herself in this post? I am surely not the only one who finds her self-appointment as the mouthpiece of the oppressed as a little bit reminiscent of a bad Wes Anderson flick. She is no such thing.
        By putting the mickey-mouse problems of rich ethnic Americans in the same category as the desperation of poverty, she insults the billions of South Asians from the real South Asia who are poor, who really know what oppression is, which means to them that their sister will be raped tomorrow or their children die of hunger.
        As a South Asian from South Asia, let me name her as the usurper here.

17. Nayagan says:
    December 8, 2009 at 1:03 pm

    Taz,

    so you are saying, point-blank, that being a solidly middle-class Muslim in America, is an equivalent and effectively interchangeable experience of ‘oppression’ with that of anybody living far under the poverty line in America?

    If ‘punk’ is measurable by the extent to which one is oppressed, I submit that money is the great vector of such oppression and the best indicator of how severe the condition actually is.

    If you want to say that this ‘punk’ space is not defined by how oppressed the actors within actually are, I’ll applaud your decision, but I will never do so if the status quo of, “my ‘rents are blue-collared, I’m Muslim, how dare you question my authenticity” is maintained. In fact, why claim ‘blue collar” cred at all? Isn’t it your position that economic status is immaterial to any definition of punk?

    Everywhere I travel, outsiders with knowledge of Tamil Diaspora will joke about going LTTE. Any places in which we form a sizable minority feature constant media coverage of actual LTTE supporters acting out in public. I’m not immune to the, “you are, therefore you are a potential terrorist.” assumption.

    and yes it seems that in spaces like these you have to establish your ‘cred’ before giving thanks, praise or criticism.

    Reply

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