Michael Muhammad Knight

An excellent book. Presents a banquet of food for thought.
Not written in the typical MMK 'gonzo style' with tons of personal history- his book is more like a Made for the General Public watered down thesis. Much more impersonal and journalistic, although there is a surprisingly touching description of a powerful dream of his in the Dreams chapter.
MMK argues against the notion of a 'pure' Islam (uninfluenced by history, culture, other religions) and uses the framework of magic to show the porousness of our definitions of magic, science, and religion.
Highly recommended reading for Muslim Book Clubs.… (meer)

I saw this book at Everybody Reads (one of my local bookstores) and had to buy it because: a) the cover, b) Soft Skull Press, c) I loved Knight's book Magic in Islam. I am so glad that I did. This book kind of blew me away.

Portrayals of Muslims in this culture tend to fall in one of two categories: suicide-bomber extremists, or morally upright peace-loving middle class folk who give to charity after every tragedy. But of course, if you think about it for two seconds, this can't be all there actually is. This book presents a dizzying array of young Muslims trying to define their own lives in punk culture, as Muslims, and as wildly misunderstood minorities in America. Sometimes some of the characters come off as caricatures, but then, so did a bunch of the people I knew in college who held really rigid beliefs of one stripe or another. These are kids trying to walk their own lines between rebellion and faith, anarchy and obedience.

I loved Rabeya, the band-patch-covered-burqa wearing feminist with a fierceness, but then, one of our first introductions to her character is her blasting "Muhammad My Friend" by Tori Amos from her room, so that's pretty obvious. But she takes her Islam as seriously as her feminism, even as she sings profane and explicit punk songs, publishes zines called "Ayesha's Hymen," and seems to make it her personal mission to trouble the perceptions of gender of every Muslim in the house. How could I not love her?

So maybe bits of the final punk show felt a bit over the top, but I still closed this book with a sense of amazed gratitude. Also, I need to find myself some radical Islamic feminist writing.… (meer)

A mess, but an entertaining one. As if Jack Kerouac got into a brawl with Hunter S. Thompson while they co-wrote the script to Repo Man—but less filling. A wild road trip steeped in Islamic youth culture that involves battling zombies, kidnapping a Hollywood celebrity and debating the value of Muslim Emo vs. Muslim Punk while seeking to do something about it all. I didn’t always follow the Islamic goings on, sometimes googling furiously for context, but I did appreciate the brisk and approachable writing style. I was reminded of the feeling of being young and needing to take part in a world that you are just discovering. The sex, language and violence will not be to everybody’s taste, but they are a part of the worldview. The inherent value of following Islam is understood to be a given and thankfully not a moment is spent justifying its presence in America. Being Islamic post 9/11 is to encounter many conflicts. In much of the book, the characters lurch from one battle to another as if trying to figure out which ones are important and which are just crazy distractions. The book concludes with a not so subtle lesson that what you don’t respect may bite you—not every battle is in front of you but rather sometimes occur inside.




… (meer)