Richard Lester Meyers, better known by his stage name Richard Hell, is an American singer, songwriter, bass guitarist and writer.
The takbīr is the name for the Arabic phrase Allāhu ʾakbar.
Peter Lamborn Wilson was an American anarchist author and poet, primarily known for his concept of Temporary Autonomous Zones, short-lived spaces which elude formal structures of control. During the 1970s, Wilson lived in the Middle East and worked at the Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy under the guidance of Iranian philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr, where he explored mysticism and translated Persian texts. Starting from the 1980s he wrote numerous political writings under the pen name of Hakim Bey, illustrating his theory of "ontological anarchy".
Jesse Michaels is an American songwriter, painter, illustrator, musician, singer, and author from Berkeley, California. His lyrics deal with politics, racism, and general social issues. He is most well known as the vocalist for the ska punk band Operation Ivy (1987–1989), as well as Classics of Love. In 2023 Michaels formed the band DOOM Regulator. He is the son of the author Leonard Michaels, and was married to producer Audrey Marrs.
Taqwacore is a subgenre of punk music dealing with Islam, its culture, and interpretation. Originally conceived in Michael Muhammad Knight's 2003 novel, The Taqwacores, the name is a portmanteau of "hardcore" and the Arabic word "taqwa" (تقوى), which is usually translated as "piety" or the quality of being "God-fearing", and thus roughly denotes reverence and love of the divine. The scene is composed mainly of young Muslim artists living in the US and other Western countries, many of whom openly reject traditionalist interpretations of Islam, and thus live their own lifestyle within the religion or without.
Michael Muhammad Knight is a white American novelist, essayist, journalist, and convert to Islam. His writings are popular among American Muslim youth. The San Francisco Chronicle described him as "one of the most necessary and, paradoxically enough, hopeful writers of Barack Obama's America," while The Guardian has described him as "the Hunter S. Thompson of Islamic literature," and his non-fiction work exemplifies the principles of gonzo journalism. Publishers Weekly describes him as "Islam's gonzo experimentalist." Within the American Muslim community, he has earned a reputation as an ostentatious cultural provocateur.
Dominic Rains is an Iranian-American actor, best known for his roles in independent films, including The Taqwacores (2010), A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014), as well as Dr. Crockett Marcel in Chicago Med and as Kasius in the fifth season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
File Under Popular: Theoretical and Critical Writings on Music is a collection of seven essays on the political theory of popular music written by English percussionist, lyricist and music theorist, Chris Cutler. The essays were written between 1978 and 1983, four of them in response to requests and the rest unprompted. Two of the essays were first published in two German publications, and two were originally presented by Cutler at two international symposia on popular music. The book was first published in 1985 in London by November Books, the publishing wing of Cutler's independent record label, Recommended Records. It was also published in Polish, German and Japanese.
A number of overlapping punk rock subgenres have developed since the emergence of punk rock in the mid-1970s. Even though punk genres at times are difficult to segregate, they usually show differing characteristics in overall structures, instrumental and vocal styles, and tempo. However, sometimes a particular trait is common in several genres, and thus punk genres are normally grouped by a combination of traits.
Secret Trial Five is a Canadian five-piece political punk rock band formed in 2006 in Vancouver.
Elen Orr, known as Fly, is a comic book artist, illustrator, activist, and teacher whose art has been published in various magazines and fanzines, including Slug and Lettuce, Maximum Rock 'N' Roll, World War 3 Illustrated, and The Village Voice, among others. She is also a former member of New York queercore punk band God Is My Co-Pilot.
Mila Aung-Thwin is a Canadian documentary filmmaker, producer and activist whose films deal with social justice.
Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam is a 2009 documentary film, directed by Omar Majeed and produced by EyeSteelFilm, about various Taqwacore bands and performers touring the United States and Pakistan. The documentary was filmed between 2007 and 2009. It was pitched at the 2007 Sheffield Doc/Fest MeetMarket prior to completion.
Omar Majeed is a Pakistani Canadian film director and producer who studied cinema at York University Film School and later on studied editing at the International Academy of Design in Toronto. He is the son of Pakistani actress and singer Musarrat Nazir. He went on to work as producer Toronto's Citytv and won a Gemini Award for his television work. He also worked with Canada's National Film Board through the Reel Diversity program in Montreal and with EyeSteelFilm.
Taqwacore is a subgenre of punk music dealing with Islam. It may also refer to:
Al-Thawra is an experimental metal punk band with rhythms and modes that draw heavily on Middle Eastern influences. Band member Marwan Kemal describes a "third identity" between the "false dichotomy of East and West", pointing out that "in the Middle East, I'm still always 'the American kid'". Kemal grew up in Chicago—the band's bassist Mario Salazar is Mexican, and Sahar Salameh joined the band as a vocalist when she was 16 years old. Kamel's father is Syrian, but his mother was raised Catholic—he says he is "more influenced by the mystical paths in Islam. Like Sufism." The Islamic Monthly describes the band as challenging "mainstream Arab and Muslim 'Americaness'" Their musical genre has various been described as taqwacore and raïcore.
The Taqwacores is a 2010 film adaptation of the 2003 novel The Taqwacores by Michael Muhammad Knight. The film was directed by Eyad Zahra and stars Bobby Naderi, Dominic Rains, and Noureen Dewulf. The film imagines a fictitious Islamic punk rock scene through characters living in a punk house in Buffalo, New York. It was filmed in Cleveland, Ohio.
Islamic teachings and argument have been used to censor opinions and writings throughout history, up to and including the modern era, and thus there are many cases of censorship in Islamic societies. One example is the fatwa against The Satanic Verses, ordering that the author be executed for blasphemy. Depictions of Muhammad have inspired considerable controversy and censorship. Some Islamic societies have religious police, who enforce the application of Islamic Sharia law.
Gibril Fouad Haddad is a Lebanese-born Islamic scholar, hadith expert (muhaddith), author, and translator of classical Islamic texts. He was featured in the inaugural list of The 500 Most Influential Muslims and has been called "one of the clearest voices of traditional Islam in the Western world", a "prominent orthodox Sunni" and a "staunch defender of the traditional Islamic schools of law." He holds ijazas from over 150 scholars across the Muslim world. He was a visiting fellow (2013-2015) then senior assistant professor (2015-2018) at the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Center for Islamic Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam. He is also a staunch critic of Wahhabism and Salafism.
