Review: Taqwacore: The Birth Of Punk Islam

Follows the Kominas (and other) from Boston to Austin to Pakistan

By CHRIS FARAONE | April 22, 2010

3.0 Stars

At first, Taqwacore seems like a gratuitous yet sympathetic social prognosis served up by a righteous gang of Muslim punks and their leader, Michael Muhammad Knight, whose novels of adolescent Islamic angst inspired this documentary and its namesake movement. But as director Omar Majeed follows Massachusetts-based rockers the Kominas (and other similarly flavored acts) from Boston to Austin to Pakistan, it’s easy to root against these coming-of-agers, who wear their confusion on their vintage T’s and walk the line between self-persecution and deliberate outward agitation. It’s all innocent and entertaining enough, and songs like “I Want To Fuck You During Ramadan” are certainly rebellious, but none of these characters is radical enough to hold that religion is a ridiculous hoax in the first place.

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