'The Taqwacores'

I'm not convinced this is going to work. Punk is revolutionary, and for Muslims the revolution wants to dethrone Western hegemony. Won't know for sure until I see it, but the burka-clad punker doesn't inspire confidence. At LAT:

There's a burka-clad Riot Grrrl who scribbles Patti Smith lyrics on her wall and puts forward the notion that a woman doesn't necessarily need to make her face visible to qualify as an outspoken feminist. Another electric guitar-playing skateboarder character tests the limits of his faith by chugging beer and declaring, "I'm not big on the 'Islam is one way' approach."



The Taqwacores generally reject specific tenets of Koranic dogma: that homosexuality is a sin, that masturbation amounts to "self-harm" and that a man is justified in beating his wife to discipline her.



But outside of mashing-up of punk with Islam, "The Taqwacores" presents compelling ideas about how modern Muslims worship in this country. The film presents Islam as a dynamic faith that's endlessly argued and debated — and in one case, straight-up revised when a character crosses out a verse in the Koran — to fit unruly American lives in the post- 9/11 world.



"The point of the film was to portray Muslims in this whole new way," the director explained. "There's a notion that Muslims are zombies; they only regurgitate what they're told by the leaders of their community. But there's a huge spectrum. We're showing an extreme of it."

I'll believe it when I hear denunciations of the Muslim Brotherhood.