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since Wed, 26 Dec 2007 20:04:17.
Sagg Taqwacore Syndicate (discussed below) comes from the borderland where punk meets Islam.
A previous blog entry provided a short discussion of the American Muslim rap scene: Islamoblog: 10 Most Successful Muslim Rappers.
Sagg Taqwacore Syndicate: an unlikely taqwacore?
If Taqwacore is about eliminating labels, why would I call The Sagg Syndicate an unlikely taqwacore? When I first met Ra, the man behind the band The Sagg Taqwacore Syndicate, it was online, and I made some assumptions about his identity, all of which were proven wrong (Note to self: assumptions about identity are pointless).
But first, what exactly is taqwacore? I don’t think there is any exact definition, and if you asked ten people, everyone would probably give tell you something slightly different. Taqwacore is a subculture expressed in music inspired by punk, and a community inspired by Islam. It has evolved in the United States during the Bush era, as a response against rampant islamophobia, and as such, it carries political undertones. It also deals with the questions of identity, of being a child of immigrants and integrating different cultures in your identity, as many taqwacores come from families that immigrated to United States from different countries in Asia. Above all taqwacore is a call against hate and fundamentalism of any kind. This, I must point out, is my personal definition, and the said ten others may come up with something different.
I continue my exploration of taqwacore, having been introduced to it by The Kominas (a band of rather epic proportions), about whom I wrote here earlier. Since then, I have felt a great affinity for this movement, and was very happy when Ra found me. I listened to his songs on repeat since then, racking my brains to figure out where this guy is coming from.
Now here’s the deal. Ra is not a Muslim. Ra is not from Middle East. But this is something you would not know when listening to his music, or talking to him online. Labels don’t work very well online. Taqwacore is against labels, and about blended identities. So it all fits, right? In his music, and in our conversations, Ra speaks up for the Muslims, and against bigotry, and his story should be written up in an epic novel rather than in a short article.
Ra was raised a Mormon in Utah, and has been a part of the music scene there. He witnessed the famous Salt Lake City punk scene that in itself formed a basis for a movie. So his roots are punk, and counterculture, and with hindsight it seems logical that taqwacore would come next.
The first Muslim person that Ra met was a refugee from the former Yugoslavia, when many immigrated to Utah during the Croatian and Bosnian wars for independence in the early ‘90s. Ra formed first friendships with people following Islam then. He read The Holy Quran, and said how much beauty he found there. Also violence, but not really more violence than say in the Torah. Taqwacore on the other hand is all about rejecting violence, of trying to find new ways to be united. Mike Knight expresses this struggle in his novel, The Taqwacores, which gave the name to the movement. (If there is a list of required taqwacore reading, this would be it). Ra found Taqwacores the book in the trash somewhere in Colorado (his story seems full of epic travels), picked the book up with missing pages, and liked the idea, but thought that this was complete fiction; he liked how preposterous the concept of Muslim Punk seemed (how could this ever be real?). But it was. When things are meant to happen, they will, even in weird ways, you find a book in the trash, and it leads you to people.
Of course there is a longer thread between Ra meeting his first Bosnian refugee Muslim friend, and picking up The Taqwacores novel in the trash. The Bush years were the inbetween, and the war on the alleged terror. In his music, Ra comments… comments on the war experience, on war, on Afghanistan, on Palestine. His song, Afghan wishes, speaks about death with dark poetry, and concludes “get outta my face…if you think that death is a game,” speaking (to me) about the devaluation of human life, that the Bush era brought with its reckless rush into injustified wars.
Another song speaks about Dhaba ‘Debbie’ Almontaser, a teacher and a peace activist of Yemeni origin in New York, who founded the Khalil Gibran International Academy and was later forced to resign from it, after promoting a Tshirt with a sign of “Intifada NYC” – the Tshirt’s meaning (to shake off oppression) was misconstrued as inciting violence, and a scandal and lawsuits ensued. In the song Rusty Pipes, Ra sings:
“In the name of my family and my dead father:
New York city is in the need for an Intifada!
…
And you ask why I am angry like I am
Because my family just got killed by Uncle Sam”
The verse unfortunately rings too true in Ra’s life, since his younger brother died in Iraq. There are many layers to Ra’s story, and to his message. Layers of loss, of rage, of love, of passion. Just go and listen to his music. This is what Ra says about himself. He sums it all up better than I could:
“I would’ve been biting on Chuck Berry in the 50’s and Hendrix in the 70’s It’s just the 2000’s and Im biting on the Dead Bhutto’s and Mike Knight instead.
I dont want your Top 40!
I dont want to battle any band!
I’d prefer justice rather than an award
INCLUSION~Diversity~EVOLUTION
helping ease the masses into the future
I prefer harsh reality to candy coated lies
Friends in place of Fans
Comrades in place of Commanders
No stolen rule…No stolen elections…
and NO we dont want your occupation!!!
We dont require your write-ups, put downs,
call backs, set ups, push pins, break thrus
and buzz clips!!!
We only require the following:
JUSTICE!!!
TOLERANCE!!
and a bit of fucking REASON!!!!”
Check out Sagg’s song Afghan wishes on his myspace page. Lyrics are here:
Afghan Wishes
Smoke covered mountains
Cloud covered dreams
Death and his brother
Watching me sleep
Waking in an Inferno
and Demons laughing proud
Lost within a religion
A naked faceless shroud
Cobble bottomed plasma pool
Demonic evil and impish fool
Godlike Thanatos dripping fire
and Truth becomes a frail liar
death and sleep
Poison lips, poison one
getting sick, hike up alone
the burning red, and now I’m dead
I dont know you
(army cadence chant in background)
you know the same
I’m all alone
waiting to be slain
No I don’t know you
get outta my face
if you think that death is a game
