The Taqwacores

The Taqwacores is a novel about an imaginary group of Muslim punk rockers. Written in 2003 by Michael Muhammad Knight, the book has become an inspiration to many Muslim young people, inspiring a new music style called taqwacore. In October 2008, an independent film of the book was shot in Cleveland, directed by Eyad Zahra and due to be released in 2009.New York Times: Young Muslims Build a Subculture on an Underground Book (December 23, 2008)

Michael Muhammad Knight is an American born to an Irish Catholic family in upstate New York who converted to Islam as a teenager. He told The New York Times that he wrote the book to understand why he is both an angry American youth and an observant Muslim.New York Times: Young Muslims Build a Subculture on an Underground Book (December 23, 2008)

The main character of The Taqwacores is Yusef, an engineering student and first-generation American whose parents came from Pakistan. Yusef moves in with a group of Muslim punk rockers, who use their apartment in Buffalo as a mosque during the day and a punk party pad at night. Rumanni: The Taqwacores Story The Taqwacores has been described as a Muslim Catcher in the Rye.New York Times: Young Muslims Build a Subculture on an Underground Book (December 23, 2008)