A FILM BY OMAR MAJEED

TAQWACORE: THE BIRTH OF PUNK ISLAM

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Disaffected young Muslims in the United States (inspired) to form real Muslim punk bands and build their own subculture. The New York Times Although they are all children of immigrants from countries like Pakistan, Iran and Syria, they came together in part through the efforts of an American convert, Mike Muhammad Knight. Rolling Stone Some Muslims are deeming (The Taqwacores) to be nothing short of a revelation. The Guardian

Theyre young. Theyre punk. And theyre rocking both their Muslim and American worlds with their music, lyrics and style. CNN Punk has always been home to the marginalized and angry (and) Muslim punk rockers are fighting a two-sided establishment: one side West, the other Middle East. Newsweek Their music sometimes political, sometimes pop speaks of the experience of being Muslim in America with smatterings of Urdu, Arabic and Quranic verses. BBC

COMING SOON TO A CITY NEAR YOU

TAQWA TOUR

TAQWACORE: THE BIRTH OF PUNK ISLAM

SYNOPSIS | Inspired by a novel, rebellious young Muslims heed a loud new call to prayer
I am an Islamist! I am the antiChrist! With their tongues firmly in cheek, Bostons The Kominas belt out an anthem for a new generation of young Muslims. And in this basement of a decrepit Chicago punkhouse, a mob of like-minded Islamic misfits sneers along.

It is the summer of 2007. The Pakistani punkers have arrived at the last stop of their U.S. tour and are celebrating with tourmates. Theres Kourosh, an Iranian kid from San Antonio who calls his band Vote Hezbollah; Sena, a Pakistani lesbian from Vancouver who fronts the all-girl Secret Trial Five; Marwan, whose Chicagobased group Al-Thawra pounds heavy metal beats into Arabic drones. And there, at the centre of it all, pumping his fists in the air and shouting Allah hu Akbar, is a white American convert named Michael Muhammad Knight. The Islamic punk music scene would never have existed if it werent for his 2003 novel, The Taqwacores. Melding the Arabic word for god-consciousness with the edge of hardcore punk, Michael imagined a community of Muslim radicals: Mohawked Sufis, riot grrrls in burqas with band patches, skinhead Shias. These characters were entirely fictional. But the movement they inspired is very real. Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam follows Michael and his real-life kindred spirits on their first U.S. tour, where they incite a riot of young hijabi girls at the largest Muslim gathering in North America after Sena takes the stage. The film then travels with them to Pakistan, where members of the first Taqwacore band, The Kominas, bring punk to the streets of Lahore and Michael begins to reconcile his fundamentalist past with the rebel he has now become. By stoking the revolution against traditionalists in their own communities and against the clichs forced upon them from the outside were giving the finger to both sides, says one Taqwacore. Fuck you and fuck you. Z

As a 13-year-old surrounded by cornfields in upstate New York, Michael Muhammad Knight walked the dirt roads carrying a tape deck blasting Public Enemy, just like Radio Rahim in Spike Lees Do the Right Thing. Soon after discovering Malcolm X, Knight met his dad, a schizophrenic and self-described racial separatist. When Michael told him he was interested in Islam, he said: You dont like niggers do you? That night, Michael vowed to convert. At 15, Michael went to Islamabad to study at Faisal Mosque and nearly left his studies to become a mujahideen in Chechnya. His teachers told him he had a more important role to play: He should educate Americans about Islam. So Michael returned to the U.S. In college, he became friends with straight-

Close-Up: Writer Michael Muhammad Knight

edge punks, who like him, were against drinking, drugs and partying. But Michael couldnt keep up with Islamic orthodoxy. Feeling like a failed Muslim, he began imagining a community with a more punk-rock spirit. In the winter of 2002, while living in house in Buffalo, Michael wrote his seminal novel, The Taqwacores. Knight self-published it and gave away Xeroxed copies at mosques. The book was later picked up by Alternative Tentacles, the punk label and imprint started by Jello Biafra. Michael said he intended the novel to be his farewell to Islam. But when he heard of real-life Taqwacore bands like Vote Hezbollah and The Kominas springing up in the wake of publication, he felt inspired to return. He toured with the bands in 2007 in the U.S. and with a Pakistani band, Noble Drew, in 2008. Michaels other books include his memoir Impossible Man, Blue-Eyed Devil, The Five Percenters and a sequel of sorts to The Taqwacores called Osama Van Halen. Z
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TAQWACORE: THE BIRTH OF PUNK ISLAM

THE TAQWACORE PHILOSOPHY

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From Rumi to Omar Khayyam, Islams great mystical poets have had a long tradition of challenging religious orthodoxy and they have often suffered for their devotion. In the late 17th century, a Punjabi Sufi named Bulleh Shah wrote a scathing rant against the Islamic clerics and the mullahs who had come to dominate his religion:
Yes, Yes, you have read thousands of books but you have never tried to read your own self You rush in, into your Mandirs, into your Mosques but you have never tried to enter your own heart

Centuries later, in the late 1990s, a confused young man named Michael Muhammad Knight found himself near the end of the path to Islamic righteousness. He had studied under fundamentalists in Pakistan and absorbed the conservative theology coming out of Saudi Arabia, but found he couldnt devote fully himself to these rigid ideals. Michael felt that if he couldnt live his life within the rules, he must be a heretic. With great regret, he put Islam aside. Be Muslim on your own Back in the United States, he fell in with the punk kids at his college. Their anti-authoritarianism spoke to his struggle to break free from the structures imposed on his religion. Soon, the question emerged for Michael: Could a person take the best parts of Islam and the best parts of punk and forge a new spiritual path? In a state of newfound devotion, Michael started writing a novel about characters who embodied these ideals. He called it The Taqwacores. The Arabic word taqwa means God-consciousness and the phrase core

comes from hardcore punk. The novel is the ultimate manifesto for misfit Muslims everywhere, and its easy to see how its empowering message has sparked a real-life Taqwacore movement: Be Muslim on your terms. Tell the world to eat a dick. terms - Michael Knight The novel, centred around a house of Muslim punks, features characters who are complex and inherently contradictory. They party at night and pray during the day. Playing music, smoking hash and reciting the Quran. They embody the divine and the human. Saints and sinners moshing in the same pit. Echoing the words of Bulleh Shah, the ideals of Taqwacore are based on the belief that if Islam is supposed to bring you closer to God, then why not follow your own heart and not the mortals who claim to have all the answers? Z

Live from Bostonistan, Meet The Kominas

The Kominas is fronted by two Pakistani-Boston natives, Basim Usmani and Shahjehan Khan. The two met at their local mosque as teenagers and immediately became fast friends. While at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell, they came across Michael Muhammad Knights novel, The Taqwacores. Soon after devouring it, they decided to form their own band, The Kominas (which means the bastards in Urdu). Theyve been written about in Newsweek, The Guardian, CNN, NBC and Rolling Stone. Their album, Wild Nights in Guantanamo Bay, made a Boston Globe critics Top 10 list for 2008.

Basim, who has grew up in the U.S. and in Pakistan, says hes always felt like an outsider. As a teenager, he joined a Goth band called Malice in Leatherland. But soon found he wanted to express his feelings about growing up Muslim. After forming The Kominas and touring across the States, he began feeling homesick for Pakistan. He told Shahjehan of his plan to bring Taqwacore to the Punjab. Shahjehan always loved playing guitar. His devout parents and their circle of conservative Pakistanis often seemed to conflict with his desires. At 16, he becontinued on next page

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Close-Up: Filmmaker Omar Majeed

TAQWACORE: THE BIRTH OF PUNK ISLAM

DIRECTORS STATEMENT

Omar Majeed has worked as a director, writer and editor in the film and television industry for the past 10 years. In 2001, he received a Gemini Award for Best Editing for work he did on the ground-breaking Citytv series QueerTelevision, hosted by Irshad Manji. Omar has made several short films and documentaries, including Meet Me and Me, which premiered at the Images Film Festival in 1999, and Stare With Your Ears, a documentary on Word Jazz artist Ken Nordine whose beat-era spoken word pieces were an influence on artists from Tom Waits to DJ Food.

After moving to Montreal in 2005, Omar worked with the National Film Board before landing at EyeSteelFilm. Working on a variety of projects, both documentary and fiction, he has now partnered with EyeSteelFilm on his most ambitious and passionate project to date, Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam. Z

Meet The Kominas

continued from previous page gan drinking and doing drugs at an alarming rate, often falling into bouts of depression. When Basim invited Shahjehan to help him form a band in Pakistan, it seemed like the change he needed. The atmosphere they encountered when they arrived in Pakistan, however, was brewing with danger and disillusionment. And not far below loomed an underground filled with premium hashish and opium. After their first failed attempts to find an audience in Pakistan, both Basim and Shahjehan lapsed into drug-fueled depressions. But when they received a visit from Michael, they soon found the means to realize their dreams of bringing Taqwacore to the people of Pakistan with their new band, Noble Drew. Basim and Shahjehan have recently moved back to the U.S. where they are touring as The Kominas once more and reaching out to deviant Muslims everywhere. Z

I can admit it. Im not a very good Muslim. I realized this the day I caught myself munching on a ham sandwich while flipping through The Satanic Verses. Growing up in North America and in Pakistan, I felt stifled by the mosque and strived to define myself as a secular soul. But now, in the dark ages we refer to as our post 9/11 world, Ive found it surprisingly easier to define myself as a Muslim. As a Pakistani-Canadian, Ive also felt the need to counter the prejudices inflicted upon my mother country. Pakistan is more than a haven for Islamic terrorists. Islam is more than the religion of the Taliban. It was with these feelings that led me to a young Muslim writer named Michael Muhammad Knight and his ever-expanding circle of Taqwacores Bostonistani punkers Basim Usmani and Shahjehan Khan, Kourosh Poursalehi from San Antonio and the Secret Trial Five, Pakistani riot girls from Vancouver. Spending time with these brave new Muslims, who dare the faithful and the non-believers alike with their provocations, Ive come Ever-expanding to realize it is not circle of Taqwacores fundamentalism includes Muslim riot nor conservatism that is the girls Secret Trial Five greatest threat to our world. It is silence and apathy. It takes courage to speak out and to engage with your harshest critics. These Muslim punks talk to everyone from Wahhabi hardliners at the mosque to racial profilers enforcing homeland security. Taqwacore strikes a chord because it is youthful and unapologetic, yet it remains positive towards Islam. There is no sense of judgment or condemnation. There are no absolutes. A conservative Muslim and an atheist can shake hands and make jokes about being perceived as terrorists. Its all part of the scene. Before I heard of Taqwacore, I couldnt imagine a Muslim community that would embrace someone like me. After experiencing Punk Islam, my relationship between east and west is deeper, warmer and much more complex. Z
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TAQWACORE: THE BIRTH OF PUNK ISLAM

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SOUNDS OF THE TAQWA TOUR

The Secret Trial Five is fronted by Sena Hussain, a Pakistani Canadian drag king from Vancouver. Sena, who came out to her Muslim parents in her early 20s, decided to start the first all-girl Taqwacore band after finding The Kominas MySpace page. I thought, Brown guys playing punk? she says. Ive got to get in on this. Sena and her band were invited to tour with The Kominas in 2007. When they all crashed the Islamic Society of North Americas annual meeting in Chicago, they caused a riot, with organizers and police on one side and excited hijabi girls rocking out on the other.

Marwan Kamel, 21, a Syrian American from Chicago, isnt overtly religious, but he takes pride in his Arabic culture. He joined The Kominas and the rest of the Taqwa Tour at Michaels request. His band, Al-Thawra (Arabic for the revolution), creates metal-core music with strong Middle Eastern influences. Marwan released the first-ever Taqwacore compilation.

Omar Waqar first discovered his passion for Sufism and South Asian music when he visited Pakistan His first band was a Washington, D.C. punk-influenced group called Diacritical. Through his songs, Omar explored racism, intolerance and Sufi philosophy. His latest project, Sarmust, brings together punk, rock, qawwali and classical Indian music.

Kourosh Poursalehi was a teenager living in San Antonio, when he first read Michael Muhammad Knights The Taqwacores. He was so wrapped up in it, he called Michael and asked if he could meet the characters in the book. After Michael told him that it was a work of fiction, Kourosh said, Im going to make it real then. Under the name Vote Hezbollah, he soon recorded and released Muhammad Was a Punk Rocker, based on a poem in Michaels novel. His song is considered the first Taqwacore song.

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TAQWACORE: THE BIRTH OF PUNK ISLAM

EYESTEELFILM is a documentary film and interactive media company dedicated to using cinematic expression as a catalyst for social and political change. Our mandate is to develop and create cinema that empowers people who are ignored by mainstream media. EyeSteelFilm was founded through making films with the homeless community. Daniel Crosss gritty street trilogy (Danny Boy, 1993; The Street: a film with the homeless, 1996; SPIT: Squeegee Punks in Traffic, 2002) chronicled a generation lost to social funding cuts, political apathy, alcoholism and drug use. These films provided a template for using cinma-vrit, activism and interactivity for empowerment and change. With SPIT: Squeegee Punks in Traffic, the camera was given to a street kid named Roach, who at the time was living on the streets of Montreal. Over the three years it took to make the film, the viewer sees Roach transform from drug-addicted street kid to filmmaker. Roach has now made three documentaries with EyeSteelFilm, including Roachtrip, Punk le Vote!, and the upcoming Les Tickets. EyeSteelFilm has branched out to make films on topics such as coming of age in a modern Inuit village (Inuuvunga: I am Inuk I am Alive, 2004) and a trilogy of films chronicling modern life in China (Bone, 2005; Chairman George, 2006; Up the Yangtze; 2007). Up the Yangtze was an IDFA Joris Ivens competition finalist, in official competition at the Sundance Film Festival, and winner of the best Canadian documentary at the Vancouver Film Festival. The film was launched theatrically across North America in Spring 2008 through EyeSteelFilm and KinoSmith Distribution. Over the years, EyeSteelFilm has collaborated with a wide range of partners including: The National Film Board of Canada, CBC, CTV, BBC Storyville, ZDF ARTE, PBS P.O.V. and National Geographic International. In 2009, EyeSteelFilm was listed as a Realscreen Global 100 company.

TAQWACORE: THE BIRTH OF PUNK ISLAM

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TAQWACORE the birth of punk islam

Written and Directed by OMAR MAJEED Cinematography ZACHARIE FAY MARK ELLAM Original Music OMAR WAQAR Featuring MICHAEL MUHAMMAD KNIGHT BASIM USMANI SHAHJEHAN KHAN MARWAN KAMEL SENA HUSSAIN OMAR WAQAR KOUROSH POURSALEHI Editing OMAR MAJEED MAXIME CHALIFOUX Sound Supervisor CORY RIZOS Sound Editor KYLE STANFIELD Executive Producers DANIEL CROSS MILA AUNG-THWIN Produced by MILA AUNG-THWIN Co-Producer BOB MOORE Associate Producer OMAR MAJEED Production Manager HALIMA OUARDIRI AMMAR AZIZ (Pakistan) Production Co-ordinator ANUJ KHOSLA Online Editor MICHAEL MK SIU Still Photography KIM BADAWI

EYESTEELFILM 4475 Saint-Laurent #202 Montreal, Quebec H2W 1Z8 phone 514-937-4893 fax 514-313-7383 mila@eyesteelfilm.com omar@eyesteelfilm.com
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