For background’s sake, I started thinking and writing about Taqwacore after someone at UW-Madison sent me an article from The Los Angeles Times. At the time, I was blogging for a project called Inside Islam, a new media collaboration between Wisconsin Public Radio and University of Wisconsin-Madison, during a year-long appointment as online community leader. A couple of months after I wrote a follow-up post based on my research after reading the article, which called Taqx “punk Islam,” and talked a bit with Imran Malik from The Kominas on Twitter. I found him there when he was tweeting with a mutual friend at Harvard.
From then on, I had my eyes peeled for Taqwacores on Twitter and realized as my friend Britny did here in Madison (who’s not Muslim either but a total punk) that “Twitter is basically the most punk thing on the Internet.” I agree but I think of it also as the Red Light district for ideas, a place to be open and share thoughts, regardless of how polished and complete the thought is. For that reason, I think it’s perfect for working through a more coherent understanding of Taqwacore between a bunch of people, or at least that is what it has become to me. It’s a starting point for tour dates, blog posts, and radio shows now too, as well as a way to share them with each other under the #taqwacore tag.
As for the hashtag scene, I’ll keep it brief and finish with my thoughts about gender because it’s role is not really unique to Taqwacore. It’s a way to mark tweets about the bands and events but also has become a way to mark tweets where we’re breaking down the concept or abstract idea with references and thoughts related to it. I could be talking about Nirvana to use an actual example in a tweet and tag it with #taqwacore so that people know I’m making the connection.
As far as the participation of women in Taqx, which is a big question and an open one in my mind, I’m sure that Twitter is important but I’d have to think some more about the significance.
In my mind, it’s mostly a new media tool. I didn’t know much about punk music or visit any kind of scene until after connecting with people on Twitter. Media is my background and it’s how I’ve approached understanding Taqx. The conversations I’ve had about it in real life were mostly with my mother Ellen Foley, a Pulitzer prize finalist and journalist for 30 years. Not that these credentials mean much, it’s my big picture perspective that got me here anyway, but it is the background I inherited and how I approached the whole movement at first. Actually, that’s kind of the point of using Twitter, Taqx has inverted the way I get information from top-down to bottom-up, it’s connected me with others, and given me an informal way to share my perspective. There’s a connection here with the book and self-publishing that maybe that’s something to explore. I haven’t yet but it’s been on my mind and anyway, that’s getting a little off topic a little.
To answer the role of gender question for Twitter, telling a story about Taqx has never been a perfect process and I’ve had to bring lots of other people into the conversation – from interfaith leaders, to journalists, to other Kominas, to my mom, friends, and whoever else was willing to talk. In my mind, it’s a new story to be told, whether or not it’s a woman or a man telling it and whether or not it’s a musician or journalist or a photographer articulating what’s important to add or even tweet. I think with any other subject it would matter but in Taqwacore we’ve kind of taken our own roles.
