An Analysis Of Islamic Liberalism Found In Michael Muhammad Kinght’s Novel :The Taqwacores
APPENDICES
BIOGRAPHY OF MICHAEL MUHAMMAD KNIGHT
Michael Muhammad Knight (born 1977) is an American novelist, essayist, and journalist.
His writings are popular among American Muslim youth.
Within the American Muslim
community, he has earned a reputation as an ostentatious cultural provocateur. He obtained a
master's degree from Harvard University in 2011 and is a Ph.D. student in Islamic studies at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Knight's father, Wesley Unger, was the thirteenth of twenty children born to a Pentecostal
preacher in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. A participant in outlaw motorcycle club culture,
Unger was mentally ill and abusive, causing Knight's mother to escape with him when Knight
was two years old. Knight grew up in Geneva, New York, raised by his mother in a Roman
Catholic family of Irish descent. Knight's first exposure to Islam came when he was 13 when he
discovered Malcolm X through the lyrics of the hip-hop band, Public Enemy. After reading Alex
Haley's Autobiography of Malcolm X at 15, Knight's study of Islam intensified and he converted
to Islam. It was also at 15 that Knight met his father for the first time since he was two years
old; when Knight informed Unger that he was Muslim, Unger told Knight that he was a white
supremacist. At 17 Knight traveled to Islamabad, Pakistan, to study Islam at Faisal Mosque. He
came close to making the decision to abandon this course of study to join the war against
Russian rule in Chechnya. On August 2, 2009, he married Sadaf Khatri in San Jose, California.
NOVEL THE TAQWACORES
After disillusionment with orthodox Islam, Knight wrote two books, Where Mullahs Fear
to Tread and The Furious Cock, which he printed as xeroxed zines. In winter 2002 he wrote The
Taqwacores, which told the story of a fictitious group of Muslim punk-rockers living in Buffalo,
New York. Characters included a Straight edge Sunni Muslim, a drunken mohawk-wearing Sufi
punk, a burqa-wearing riot grrrl and a Shi'a skinhead.
Knight originally self-published the novel in a spiral-bound, xeroxed form and gave away
copies for free. The book was later picked up for distribution by Alternative Tentacles, the punk
record label founded by Jello Biafra. An encounter with Peter Lamborn Wilson led to The
Taqwacores being published by Autonomedia in 2004.
The Taqwacores was intended as Knight's farewell to Islam, but encouragement from
readers caused Knight to reconsider his relationship to the faith. The novel has since inspired the
start of an actual taqwacore scene, including bands such as the Kominas, Vote Hezbollah, and
Secret Trial Five. Carl Ernst, specialist in Islamic studies at UNC, called The Taqwacores a
“Catcher in the Rye for young Muslims”. The novel has been taught in courses at Kenyon
College, Vassar College, University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, Trinity College, Sarah Lawrence
College, Canisius College, Indiana University, and the Ohio State University.
The Taqwacores’ burqa-wearing riot girl, Rabeya, and her dialogue from the novel has
been adapted in the Rapture Project, an ongoing puppet show regarding religion in American
culture and politics. Rabeya, who in one passage of The Taqwacores gives a Friday sermon and
leads the mixed gender group in prayer, also influenced author Asra Nomani to organize a mixed
gender prayer held March 18, 2005, in New York and led by Qur'an scholar Dr. Amina Wadud
in support of women as imams. Knight worked security at the Wadud prayer.
The Taqwacores opens with the poem “Muhammad was a Punk Rocker”. The
Taqwacores quickly spread underground among young Muslim Punks and other misfits caught
between the racism and bigotry of the communities in which they now lived and the
conservatism of religion and culture in which they were raised. The Taqwacores became a
movement of Muslim Punks. The first bands to use the term Taqwacore are The Kominas, Vote
Hezbollah and the Sagg Taqwacore Syndicate. Other bands on the scene include Diacritical,
Secret Trial Five, Noble Drew, Fedayeen, Sarmust and other bands under SG-Records. Vote
Hezbollah composed a song to Michael Muhammad Knights poem “Muhammad was a Punk
Rocker”.
BIOGRAPHY OF MICHAEL MUHAMMAD KNIGHT
Michael Muhammad Knight (born 1977) is an American novelist, essayist, and journalist.
His writings are popular among American Muslim youth.
Within the American Muslim
community, he has earned a reputation as an ostentatious cultural provocateur. He obtained a
master's degree from Harvard University in 2011 and is a Ph.D. student in Islamic studies at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Knight's father, Wesley Unger, was the thirteenth of twenty children born to a Pentecostal
preacher in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. A participant in outlaw motorcycle club culture,
Unger was mentally ill and abusive, causing Knight's mother to escape with him when Knight
was two years old. Knight grew up in Geneva, New York, raised by his mother in a Roman
Catholic family of Irish descent. Knight's first exposure to Islam came when he was 13 when he
discovered Malcolm X through the lyrics of the hip-hop band, Public Enemy. After reading Alex
Haley's Autobiography of Malcolm X at 15, Knight's study of Islam intensified and he converted
to Islam. It was also at 15 that Knight met his father for the first time since he was two years
old; when Knight informed Unger that he was Muslim, Unger told Knight that he was a white
supremacist. At 17 Knight traveled to Islamabad, Pakistan, to study Islam at Faisal Mosque. He
came close to making the decision to abandon this course of study to join the war against
Russian rule in Chechnya. On August 2, 2009, he married Sadaf Khatri in San Jose, California.
NOVEL THE TAQWACORES
After disillusionment with orthodox Islam, Knight wrote two books, Where Mullahs Fear
to Tread and The Furious Cock, which he printed as xeroxed zines. In winter 2002 he wrote The
Taqwacores, which told the story of a fictitious group of Muslim punk-rockers living in Buffalo,
New York. Characters included a Straight edge Sunni Muslim, a drunken mohawk-wearing Sufi
punk, a burqa-wearing riot grrrl and a Shi'a skinhead.
Knight originally self-published the novel in a spiral-bound, xeroxed form and gave away
copies for free. The book was later picked up for distribution by Alternative Tentacles, the punk
record label founded by Jello Biafra. An encounter with Peter Lamborn Wilson led to The
Taqwacores being published by Autonomedia in 2004.
The Taqwacores was intended as Knight's farewell to Islam, but encouragement from
readers caused Knight to reconsider his relationship to the faith. The novel has since inspired the
start of an actual taqwacore scene, including bands such as the Kominas, Vote Hezbollah, and
Secret Trial Five. Carl Ernst, specialist in Islamic studies at UNC, called The Taqwacores a
“Catcher in the Rye for young Muslims”. The novel has been taught in courses at Kenyon
College, Vassar College, University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, Trinity College, Sarah Lawrence
College, Canisius College, Indiana University, and the Ohio State University.
The Taqwacores’ burqa-wearing riot girl, Rabeya, and her dialogue from the novel has
been adapted in the Rapture Project, an ongoing puppet show regarding religion in American
culture and politics. Rabeya, who in one passage of The Taqwacores gives a Friday sermon and
leads the mixed gender group in prayer, also influenced author Asra Nomani to organize a mixed
gender prayer held March 18, 2005, in New York and led by Qur'an scholar Dr. Amina Wadud
in support of women as imams. Knight worked security at the Wadud prayer.
The Taqwacores opens with the poem “Muhammad was a Punk Rocker”. The
Taqwacores quickly spread underground among young Muslim Punks and other misfits caught
between the racism and bigotry of the communities in which they now lived and the
conservatism of religion and culture in which they were raised. The Taqwacores became a
movement of Muslim Punks. The first bands to use the term Taqwacore are The Kominas, Vote
Hezbollah and the Sagg Taqwacore Syndicate. Other bands on the scene include Diacritical,
Secret Trial Five, Noble Drew, Fedayeen, Sarmust and other bands under SG-Records. Vote
Hezbollah composed a song to Michael Muhammad Knights poem “Muhammad was a Punk
Rocker”.