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Mood: Sleepy ]
[ Currently: Taking a break from cleaning ]
Muslims are the baddy due jour. When anyone is in need of a scapegoat or villain and doesn’t have time to do their research, they turn to the followers of Mohammed. Hollywood, Republicans, Fox News, all have engaged in this fun-time building of a Muslim stereotype, so that non-muslims think they know what Islam is all about, how it is practiced and the like without ever having talked to a real muslim. Missing from the weaving of the narrative are Muslim voices.
Enter into this Michael Muhammed Knight and his novel "The Taqwacores".
Yusuf Ali is an engineering student who lives off campus in an all-Muslim house full of the Taqwacores. He lives with Umar, a supposedly the straight-edge Sunni who is covered in tattoos; Rabeya, a burqa-clad riot grrl; and Jehangir, the dope-smoking mohawked Sufi.
Plot wise, not much happens in this book. It is more of a series of charater vignettes leading to Yusuf leaving the house to head home, Yusuf asks questions about the validity of the Islam practiced by he and his housemates. Hardcore followers of punk music, the people in the house drink, do drugs and have sex.
This book is supposed to be the Generation X of the North American Muslim youth. Contriversial, even banned in some countries, the book portrays a group of Muslims who see themselves as religious, but aren’t the stereotypes you see on TV. Full of profanity and explicit scenes, this books seems to want to shock its reader with how the characters behave.
In spite of all this drama, I found the book difficult to finish. At times I just didn’t care about the characters enough to push through what, at times, was a rudderless narrative. Althought this could be because as a non-muslim, I missed half of the references in the novel.
This is a take it or leave it novel. If you really want a look at contemporary Muslim life, try the works of Randa Abdel-Fattah or Rukhsana Khan.