I’ve been writing a new post about Muslim punk bands for the past week. I started with this post. All I have to add are a couple bands and some songs to share soon. There’s nothing fully formed yet but a couple of thoughts to follow up on why I’m all about the music.

You may have to forget about everything you’ve heard about Islam and everything you know about punk music for it to get though. All the statistics, the hijab, the social movements, and politics. The punk scene with drugs, sex, and rebellion. The fear about Muslim immigrants coming to convert the masses. Panic, rage, and all the history. Or you can listen, let it break your heart, not make sense, and ultimately, let it go if that’s what it takes.

Music doesn’t fix religion or any of those complicated issues. But religion plays a big role in the way we talk about a lot of problems that simply aren’t going to go away on their own. Ideological mindsets, global crisis, race and gender politics, and other social issues into dilemmas because they are happening on such a scale that they can be stamped “unsolvable” without a second thought. I can appriciate the fact that Taqwacores can’t just let this happen.

Maybe there aren’t enough people thinking through social tensions for anything to really change. It just bothers me so I talk about it. And more than that, I think Muslim punks are living with it either way. When societal problems start to play out in everyday life, maybe it’s time consider the possibility they can and are being dealt with on the individual level. So, before thinking about making any larger reforms, more important is that more people reclaim the ability and rebuild a community. Reclaim the part that is our own, shared mess. Maybe that is what Taqwacores have done and call attention to with punk music.

There’s a larger problem that I’ve known about for a long time but wasn’t able to articulate with words either. I saw modern religion as a well-defined, albiet messed up, issue but now it’s obvious to me how easily it can easily internalized, forgot, or discarded. The source of nonsense is not Islam, religion, or punk music. When those three things make sense together, it can be an awesome thing like The Kominas’ Wild Nights in Guantanamo Bay.

The conversation where someone decided on how people should think about religion, race, and politics may have to be had again. Even if there ultimately isn’t one, Taqwacores eased the tension in this head from thinking too much and instead made me listen to what religion means to me. So, as if it’s not all too obvious, I’m all about their music and bless the movement. And maybe letting go of some Catholic guilt about not having all the answers when I raise my fisticas next time.

For now, the argument here is about to get random because this is a memory and, hey, that’s how memory works. Writing this reminded me a piece of street art I saw once in Philly. It said: without music life isn’t fair. Even if Taqwacores didn’t choose to play music for exactly that reason, and it’s merely why I listen, oh well. I’m still saying the act is worthwhile.