Taqwacore

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2008)

This article is about the Taqwacore music movement;

For the documentary by Omar Majeed Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam, see Taqwacore (film).

For the book The Taqwacores by Michael Muhammad Knight, see The Taqwacores.

Taqwacore is a genre of punk music dealing with Islam and its culture, originally conceived in Michael Muhammad Knight's novel, The Taqwacores. The name is a portmanteau of hardcore and the Arabic word Taqwa, which is usually translated as "piety" or the quality of being "God-fearing", and thus roughly denotes fear and love of the divine.

The first bands to use the term taqwacore are The Kominas, Vote Hezbollah and the Sagg Taqwacore Syndicate.^{[citation needed]} Other bands on the scene include Diacritical and Secret Trial Five.

There is not a definitive "taqwacore sound," as artists incorporate various styles, ranging from punk to hip-hop, and musical traditions from the Muslim world; the Kominas describe their sound as "Bollywood punk", Sagg Taqwacore Syndicate are rap and techno inspired music while Al-Thawra uses the term "raicore", based on Arabic Raï music.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] External links

• "Young Muslims Build a Subculture on an Underground Book", New York Times, Dec 2008
• "Islamic Street Preachers: From Boston to Lahore & Beyond", Guardian, April 2007
• Photography by Kim Badawi on Taqwacore, Pangea Magazine
• The Taqwacores (book) webpage at Autonomedia
• "Muhammad Rocked the Casbah by Lydia Craft", "Texas Observer"