TAQWACORE WEBZINE

As the Q&A progressed after the world premiere of The Taqwacores, I asked a question to the cast and crew on stage, a question ciphering in my mind all weekend — “For all the non-Muslims that participated in this film, what was your experience like? Why did you do it?”

I asked this because to me, as a Muslim punk, I clearly identified with the characters in the movie/book. Personally, it was for me the first time I saw characters that were me, albeit an exaggerated version of me. I related, I identified, distinctly. But I wondered, what was it like for others that associated with this scene or project where the identity wasn’t as clear cut?

There were a few people who came to me much later in the week with answers they were too shy to answer on stage. Denise George who plays Dee Dee Ali told a story of how she had Jewish friends who were not quite supportive of her participation in the film. Anne Leighton who plays Lynn talked to me about how as a youth, she had lived abroad in the Middle East.

But that night, it was Nick Riley, Cleveland based production manager for the film, who was the only person to answer the question on stage. It was eloquent, something about how sub-cultures need to support sub-cultures. I forgot most of what he said though, so I asked him to expand. This is what he wrote:

To be honest, my involvement with The Taqwacores movie was by pure chance. I received a myspace message one day from some kid, Eyad, who came back to Cleveland from LA to make a movie. At the time I was collectively running a DIY show space in Cleveland called Tower2012, and our policy was pretty much, if your band asks to play, and we can make it happen, we’ll make it happen. From time to time we would get your oddities contacting us for a place to put on their event, like traveling plays, movie screenings, puppet shows, etc… and they were sometimes the most fun, something different. So anytime something other than a band wanted our help we’d find a way to make it happen. That’s really how and why I initially agreed to meet with Eyad, the director of the movie, and work things out, but that’s not what ended up being the how and why of what actually happened.

I grew up in a city right next to Cleveland, that had a pretty large Arabic population, more than any other minority, but most of them were Christian. Two of my best friends growing up, had a Muslim stepfather, and half-brother, but they were raised Christian by their mother. I grew up with a complete tolerance and awareness of middle eastern culture and religion, but really still knew nothing about it. So really The Taqwacores ended up being my first look into Islam.

The best judge of the value of an idea is the quality of character of those involved with the propagation of that idea. First meeting Eyad, and then Mike Knight, and then Allison, and Marwan, all these people from totally different places, totally different backgrounds, and they were all such great people first and foremost. So this thing, “Taqwacore” that they were coming together over, really started to intrigue me. Now while I am very anti-religion, anti-authoritarian in general, I still have always had, and have, this… shall we say, spiritual streak. So this idea of people who believed in something else other than just material reality as we know it, and still very anti-authoritarian, just felt like the kinda thing I had been looking for awhile.

Most of my own connections to things like spirituality, mysticism, philosophy, the questions of life and death, morality, etc… came from a western/pagan/Christian perspective, yet I could see my own reactions to things in the Taqwacore perspective. We all knew that these stories passed down from generations upon generations ago by our respective religions, along with countless other stories from all over the planet, were all talking about the same human experience. And that whatever that experience is, it is still worth talking about and aiming for. Just because other attempts to describe it have fallen short of our own experiences to date, doesn’t negate the idea of the experience in general. It just means no one can mediate that for you, you have to do it yourself.

From my experience with the actors, the crew, and the other bands all associated with this thing called Taqwacore, I saw a movement that was everything I ever wanted in scope. It was as DIY as possible, and yet still aiming for the heart of this beast we call society. For whats the good of a great idea, if no one talk about it? The idea of people from all backgrounds coming together to talk about how this world can better embrace the divine in order to become more free, instead of the less free that organized religion offers? Well that sounds like a great idea to me. It’s as I like to say, anarchy and alchemy.

Nick Riley plays the drums in a band with his two best friends. The band is called Filmstrip. They came out on the mini Taqwa tour to Sundance 2010 with The Kominas and Al-Thawra. You can find Nick and his band in and around the Cleveland area – check out their myspace to keep up.

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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.