Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam

WARNING: This review is hidden because it reveals the content of the film.
Click here to show this review. "TAQWACORE: The Birth of Punk Islam" premiered to a packed audience at the Imperial Cinema at Montreal's Festival Nouveau Cinema. It is a film that documents the travels of Muslim punk bands in the USA that were united by Michael Muhammad Knight's fictional book "The Taqwacores" (god-consciousness and hardcore punk) about the adventures of a punk rocker Muslim band. Director/Editor Omar Majeed and Producer Daniel Cross (of "Up the Yangtze" fame) have created an instant sensation with this film that is bound to turn heads and raise controversy. Taqwacore is brim full of hope and testosterone. The film’s major protagonists are all young Muslim men with the white convert Michael Mohammad Knight forming the central character taking us through the journey of Islamic Punk Rock in America with bands like "The Kominas" (rascals), “Vote Hezbollah” and the all-girl lesbian band from Vancouver "Secret Trial Five". Muslims are demonized in Western media and several Islamic nations have been placed on the US security alert lists, which make mobility to and from those nations increasingly perilous. Muslims are constantly the targets of media bigotry and it is rare to see a film that neither victimizes nor demonizes Muslims. I found the parallel between the isolation of the Muslim boys in America and in turn the American boy (Knight) in Pakistan extremely poignant. The homoerotic subtext between Knight and his ‘following’ of young men was consistently present in the film about Punk Rock, which is itself filled with homoerotic angst. The shooting style and cinematography were also commendable especially because of the shots of Pakistan in its full luscious winter/spring glory. Director Omar Majeed went to great lengths to bribe his way across Pakistan to be able to shoot inside mosques and shrines. There are several scenes with particular nuances that were hilarious to a Pakistani like myself, but may have lost on the crowd that seemed to be unsure whether to be tickled or frightened? One such scene was when Knight walks into a Shia Muslim shrine where he joins some of the men in self-flagellation causing much discomfort with the audience observing his white skin turn to disturbing shades of red. It was a highly charged scene with a strong correlation to bondage and sadomasochistic ritual. The camaraderie between the men was touching, though some in the crowd felt they wanted to hear more from the women as well. The energy of the subjects drives the film full speed but the solitude of Michael and his struggle with Islam and Muslims is intriguing and at times unsettling. Scenes like Michael’s story of abuse by his white-supremacist father set against his conversation with the pot-bellied, misogynist Imam at the Shah Faisal Mosque in Islamabad, created moments that revealed the tensions in his own life and the lives of the millions who struggle with reconciling their conscience with their spirituality. Taqwacore is an unapologetic film that holds no punches back, however it is a very balanced film and lays out the entire Islam/Punk/Music question for examination. While on one hand it critiques the USA and its fear of brown men and Islam however, on the other, it does not shy away from examining sexism, class oppression (in Pakistan) and bigotry within Islam. A CBC reporter asked me if some would consider this film offensive. I responded that those who want to be offended would be offended no matter what. Taqwacore does what any good documentary is supposed to do. It questions everything, reveals all it knows and lays out bare many questions. It unlocks a Pandora’s box of intrigue along with a ton of hope. Taqwacore is a highly entertaining Canadian film not to be missed!