Taqwacore: An Ismaili Perspective
by Sadiya Abjani I am a hated breed. By day one way, by night another. When the sun rises, I put on clothes after morning ablutions and prayer, and make my way to a college campus littered with my kind. I feel entirely alone, but show nothing but a loquacious vibrancy. I employ the day … 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 Deaf Muslim Anarchist Punk
She writes plays, directs and acts in comedy mime skits, moshes in punk pits and reads lips. Sabina England is a 20-something Midwest girl that fits no typecast. I stumbled across Sabina on twitter as the @DeafMuslim when all Taqwacore scenesters would retweet her plays and videos. I was already curious about the Deaf Desi … 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
Redefining Punk, My Way
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 … 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
Cheesy Djinn
Normally, I hate horror flicks. It’s not that I get scared of them or anything, but I just get bored of their predictable plots, one-dimensional characters, etc. etc. While everyone else in the theater would be clutching their date at every sudden movement couple with abrupt sound effects, I’d be in the back with my … Read more
Chicago SHOW! July 12th @ Empty Bottle w/ Al-Thawra, Xrin Arms, Death Factory, + MORE!
I just made the flyer for this last night. I’ve been experimenting a lot more lately with using really bright, neon colors. As you can tell, I’ve been looking at a lot of pop-art type stuff in Bidoun. Anyway, unlike all the ego-stroking fantasies of students at art schools worldwide, I’m not that into Andy … 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
Yusuf Islam Comes Half Circle
written by Imran Malik About 6 years ago, I met Yusuf Islam at a small fundraiser for Bosnia. To be honest, I didn’t care much for Yusuf at the time, but was kinda excited in the way that I was meeting the aging shell of the legendary Cat Stevens. He hadn’t written a song in … Read more
