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Autonomedia is an autonomous zone for arts radicals in both old and new media. We publish books on radical media, politics and the arts that seek to transcend party lines, bottom lines and straight lines. We also maintain the Interactivist Info Exchange, an online forum for discourse and debate on themes relevant to the books we publish. Keep up-to-date on new releases and special offers from Autonomedia. Autonomedia books can be ordered through our secure online bookstore, as well as through AK Distribution, Small Press Distribution, and outside of North America, Pluto Press. In New York City, most of our books are available at Bluestockings Books, 172 Allen Street in Manhattan. |
The Taqwacores
Set in a Muslim punk-house in Buffalo, New York, this novel explores the twin identities of punk and Islam in their many varieties and degrees of orthodoxy. The story here is primarily with the characters -- such as Umar, the straight-edge Sunni; Rabeya, the burqa-clad riot grrl; Jehangir, the dope-smoking mohawked Sufi (who plays rooftop calls-to-prayer on his electric guitar) -- and their collective articulation of a heresy-friendly, pluralist Islam. Full of punk references (real and invented) and enough Arabic phrases to fully deck out your skateboard, The Taqwacores is a great introduction to the cracks in the surface of mainstream Islam with a peculiarly American face.
What they're saying about The Taqwacores:
Sooner or later, Punk and Islam were fated to meet and produce strange offspring. This excellent novel represents the first blast of the trumpet — loud and utterly unique. — Hakim Bey
I hope British Muslim organisations will be sensible about it and think twice before protesting. They complain - rightly - about being stereotyped in the media, and The Taqwacores is a powerful antidote to that (which is one good reason why it should be read and circulated as widely as possible).
The book is an easy, funny read but, at another level and without labouring the point, it's also profoundly challenging. It addresses - in a way that's shocking but ultimately positive - questions of identity that are faced, to some extent, by all young Muslims growing up in the west.
—Brian Whittaker, The Guardian, 3/19/2007