I used to write out these lyrics, over and over:
Good thing the internet makes it way easier for everyone else…
Category: Audio
May 11th, 2009
Eminem is Back
You’ve been warned. This is seriously awesome:
May 11th, 2009
Punk Music and Graffiti
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.
May 3rd, 2009
Psst – Meet the Taqwacores
Some of them were a bit more punk and little less Islamic, while others were more Islamic but less punk. And some were both, and other none… It’s not punk. It’s not Muslim. It’s Taqwacore. Lesson learned.
Since I mentioned punk music and Islam in my projectile rant about punk Christianity, which probably isn’t as cool as I made it out to be, but nevertheless, I gots some high hopes. I also did a more grounded post a while back on punk Islam with my own commentary about Taqwacores. To get it, though, I think you just gotta listen to the music. Or read the poem that opens the book; it cuts right to the chase with “all the people in Mecca knew Muhammad’s name, they knew him by his fucked-up hair, and dangling wallet chain.”