AVATARS >: The Taqwacores

Taqwacore is essentially a American born phenomenon of American youth, many of whom their parents originally emigrated from “Muslim” countries, and now seek to mend the two. Much of Taqwacore mentality is a rebellion against the infrastructures that govern Islam, and organised faith worldwide.

I was inspired to begin photographing this movement after manifesting the true positive nature of this phenonenon: one that encouraged creativity and the arts. Despite the stereotype of Muslims in the West, Taqwacore artists or "Taqx" as they now call themselves came together essentially via social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook, which helped to accelerate their growth as a movement. Taqwacore artists include playwrights, cartoonists, musicians, designers, filmakers and photographers.

MMK :

Michael Mohammad Knight is a white convert to Islam who wrote a novel called The Taqwacores, depicting a fictional punk house in NY, where Muslim punks engage in discussions about Islam. Mike’s book has been seen as a sort of manifesto to the Taqwacore movement provoked a debate and uproar amongst conservatives Muslims world wide.

MAINSTREAM :

Taqwacore entered mainstream culture in 2010 when a Hollywood-esque fictional film inspired byThe Taqwacores premiered at Sundance 2010 in Utah. Although all the actors little to do with the real Taqwacore movement, it is interesting how all the stereotypes the real taqwacore artists tried to flee eventually catch up with them again.

To learn more of my photography on Taqwacore please visit www.upthetaqx.com. Thank you.