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.
Through the Middle East writes:
By allowing more two-way communication between the ‘east and west’ (for want of a better phrase), between those living in Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the English-speaking world, the web is ‘making this easier’. But on a much greater, arguably more significant scale than that which Wolfe describes.
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.”
I’d say that heavy metal and rock music are both symptoms of perceived youth alienation and an escape from difficult realities. I don’t really think that music is a gateway to demise, so I find it interesting that so many Christians think music can serve as a gateway to salvation.
The quote above is from Religion Dispatches and in an article called “Christian Punk Meets American Pop; Evangelicals in the ’Burbs.” My beef with the post is that it doesn’t point out that there are similarities with movements in other religions, a comparison I think you have to make when talking about American society. Heavy metal and punk Islam are youth movements for instance that might coincide with the American view of secularism as a pluralistic vision. But, for consistency’s sake, I’ll stick with Christianity as well for now…
I’m just going to quickly set this up. Read the whole context, if you like. The link below will take you to the article but first, a quote about two realities young Muslims face and that moderates fail to see:
One: at a time when youth are constantly engaging their minds to navigate the ocean of information flowing through the Web, it’s humiliating to be told you can’t think for yourself. Two: in our era of mass migration, young Muslims have more questions than ever. I draw strength from the most common remark sent to me through my Web site these days—”Can we, as Muslims, marry non-Muslims?” A hot 21st-century issue, interfaith love is helping to drive a new school of Islamic jurisprudence that reinterprets theology for Muslim minorities in the multicultural West.
Examining the fragile promise of Muslim diversity via Newsweek.
Comprehending how Islamic values are expressed in Muslims’ lives today is of central importance to the cause of peace and understanding and to realizing the promise of pluralism on which America and the global world is based… But conversations aren’t one-sided; they involve at least two parties. What does this mean? It means that the opportunity Muslims now have is shared with their neighbors. When a Muslim goes online to blog about why she wears a headscarf, a Christian or Jewish woman who is interested in the topic can ask her questions directly.
Read more: Commentary: New media, new Muslim voices via CNN. Right on, mainstream media. Nice work framing actual reality. Speechless. How bout you?
In Boston
Back in the first part of this story, I said I’d talk more about dialogue, not to understand Islam exactly, nor speak for Muslims. To anyone who wants to understand Islam, I’d say you should go for it, and would recommend Reza Aslan’s No God But God for starters because thats where I started. Or you can ask me below for sites of the any number of Muslim bloggers talking about Islam today as well. Reza’s new book How to Win a Cosmic War is out now and I hope to read it. I do, however, get the feeling I have an idea of what it says before looking at a single page.
NYC (from my Brooklyn Bridge set)
For nearly a year, I’ve been blogging about Islam. I’m not Muslim. Actually, I decided to “meet Christ” in high school, which is a phrase I usually avoid since it wreaks of lofty testimonials but will use here because that is just what we called it. I did have great leaders in my faith early on and to this day, I still believe that religion is a very important part of life. Even for people who don’t believe in organized religion and disagree with it in principle, I think religion itself is an important part of understanding the world and how people interact with each other.
One of the leaders in my life was B; he led the Christian youth group I was a part of early on. Looking back, his interpretation of how the new testament and the old (or Torah as 75% of my classmates at the time would call it) fit together was pure genius as far as I am concerned. It’s also a fact that he was the first and probably the best youth group leader in the area and his job that wasn’t easy. We were a minority in a predominately Jewish community, and he did a great job of talking with the Jewish leaders and helping us understand Jewish faith as well as Christian morality. This was my first experience learning from an interfaith leader about how to talk about religion in an intellectual way.
