Your Hair Is Haram
I think I may have misinterpreted the whole Muslim thing – I didn’t realize that I had to be baptized by being thrown into a lake and have my girlish long locks hacked into a bob chop fashioned by a police chief to prove my Muslim-ness. 59 guys and 5 girls have been sent to … Read more
Behind the Orange Curtain
Crossposted from Sepia Mutiny. Not really a Taqx story, but a Muslim one that needs to shared. When you hear the words “Orange County,” I’m sure you have an image that comes to your head very much like the ones on television shows “The O.C.” or “The Real Wives of Orange County.” The image I … Read more
Riot Pit in #Egypt
Tahrir Square looks like a mosh pit. At least from what I can see on the Al Jazeera live feed. People chanting, fists in air. The crowd moves, like the crowd in front of a stage. Naturally, you hear Arabic, words of “Allah”, “Inshallah”, “Walahi”, “Yallah”. It is their language. They say other things, things … Read more
Pass the Mic. To Riz MC.
Crossposted from Sepia Mutiny. I was first blown away by Riz Ahmed when I saw him perform on Britz. It was only after seeing him perform on The Taqwacore documentary, that I realized that Riz wasn’t just an actor – he’s also known as Riz MC. Straight out of the U.K., his lyrics are dynamic … Read more
Oscars night and Iraq
I watched the Oscars last night and as you know Kathryn Bigelow won for best director and best picture for ‘Hurt Locker.’ Good for her. First time a woman has won. I have not seen the movie. But I was disappointed that all she could do was thank the soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. … Read more
The movement without music
Originally published at PalestineNote.Com A few days ago, I posted one of Al-Thawra’s songs, “Gaza: Choking on the Smoke of Dreams,” on the Internet for free download. We wrote the song the day after the Israeli bombing started on December 27th, 2008, and we intended it as a commentary on the sheer human tragedy of … Read more
Why has everyone forgotten about Iraq?
Just to give a little statistics behind a more in-depth post I’m thinking about posting in a few days, I thought I’d give a little background into why it’s bullshit that everyone has forgotten about the war in Iraq. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that the war in Afghanistan is not an important … Read more
Women in Taqwacore and Twitter
For background’s sake, I started thinking and writing about Taqwacore after someone at UW-Madison sent me an article from The Los Angeles Times. At the time, I was blogging for a project called Inside Islam, a new media collaboration between Wisconsin Public Radio and University of Wisconsin-Madison, during a year-long appointment as online community leader. … Read more
So, you like your passport?
As if you needed another reason to fear your government, I think I may have found the perfect option for you. While everyone is still out celebrating Obama’s victory into office and toting the “Change” line, US domestic “security” policy has largely remained the same–especially concerning its own Arab (about 60% of whom are Christian) … Read more
Wild Nights Album Review by YAM BOY (AKA Nikesh Shukla)
The Kominas – ‘Wild Nights in Guantanemo Bay’ (2009) It’s two thousand and fucking nine people… Iran is imploding, the BNP is exploding and we’re all still doing the running man like it’s 1988. Who the fuck is Lady Gaga? Who the fuck are the Kominas? Cos they’ll poke—her——face… Anger, destruction, energy, synergy, polemic, ire, … Read more
