History Literature / TheTaqwacores

Aside from the ... [[JerkAss traditional]] Umar, the flat's home (either literally or spiritually) to a burqa-wearing RiotGrrrl, a [[ChaoticStupid Shia skinhead with KARBALA tattooed on his chest]], a [[EruditeStoner hashishiyun]], a FlamboyantGay, a [[HeroesWantRedheads white convert in short shorts]], and most prominently, the messianic Jehangir who plays the call to prayer on a electric guitar and talks incessantly about a mystical taqwacore scene out West in "Khalifornia." After a dream where Jehangir meets Music/JohnnyCash, he decides that his calling is to bring all the taqwacore bands from out west to Buffalo, to put together the Islamic punk concert to end all concerts.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: In [[OddlyNamedSequel Osama Van Halen]], [[spoiler: [[ActionGirl Rabeya]] beheads the AuthorAvatar in the parking lot of Bridges TV, the first American Muslim TV network to broadcast entirely in English. (It's a very meta book.)]] Unfortunately, the building recently became the scene of a murder by the CEO (Muzzammil Hassan) who went AxCrazy and beheaded his wife. The author added a note explaining that the tragedy hadn't happened yet when he wrote it, the similarity was completely unintentional and that he wrote [[spoiler: his own beheading]] as a symbolic, feminist act.

* FanService: Amazing Ayyub is just too CrazyAwesome for clothes.

* TokenWhite: Lynn, Yusef's love interest. After reading Rumi she decided to convert to Islam, but was scared off by the people telling her to wear hejab, break up with her boyfriend, take an Arabic name, give dawah to her family, stop listening to music, and get rid of her dog two seconds after taking shahadah. Now she's just sort of generally spiritual.
* TheWarOnTerror: Refreshingly ignored.

* EarWorm: I wanna handjoooob, whoa-oh.
* HoYay: Jehangir and ... everyone.

* [[spoiler: DidNotGetTheGirl: Yusef Ali and Lynn. He's frightened by her sexuality and when she comes on to him, he freaks out and breaks everything off.]]
* [[spoiler: DownerEnding: Conservative band Bilal's Boulder, who don't even allow women into their concerts, beat Jehangir to death the night of the taqwacore concert. After his death, everyone moves away and Yusef returns to his parents and old way of Islam. In the film it's a little more like a BittersweetEnding, implying that Yusef's become a stronger person and more secure in his deen, but that's all.]]

Aside from the ... [[JerkAss traditional]] Umar, the flat's home (either literally or spiritually) to a burqa-wearing RiotGrrrl, a [[ChaoticStupid Shia skinhead with KARBALA tattooed on his chest]], a [[EruditeStoner hashishiyun]], a FlamboyantGay, a [[HeroesWantRedheads white convert in short shorts]], and most prominently, the messianic Jehangir who plays the call to prayer on a electric guitar and talks incessantly about a mystical taqwacore scene out West in "Khalifornia." After a dream where Jehangir meets JohnnyCash, he decides that his calling is to bring all the taqwacore bands from out west to Buffalo, to put together the Islamic punk concert to end all concerts.

Aside from the ... [[JerkAss traditional]] Umar, the flat's home (either literally or spiritually) to a burqa-wearing RiotGrrrl, a [[ChaoticStupid Shia skinhead with KARBALA tattooed on his chest]], a [[EruditeStoner hashishiyun]], a FlamboyantGay, a [[HeroesWantRedheads white convert in short shorts]], and most prominently, the [[TheMessiah messianic]] Jehangir who plays the call to prayer on a electric guitar and talks incessantly about a mystical taqwacore scene out West in "Khalifornia." After a dream where Jehangir meets JohnnyCash, he decides that his calling is to bring all the taqwacore bands from out west to Buffalo, to put together the Islamic punk concert to end all concerts.

''"We should go out West sometime, Yusef Ali. Get a van, make like an interstate jam'aat... And along the way we'd round up all the queer alims, drunk imams, punk ayatolahs, masochistic muftis, junkie shaykhs, retarded mullahs, and guttermouthed maulanas we can find, just load up a van 'til we can't fit no more and then have guys hanging' off the side like in Rawal-fuckin' pindi! Shit, man, down the 1-90. And it all ends in Khalifornia."''

In long: a group of young American Muslims from diverse backgrounds live and hang out together in cheap off-campus housing in Buffalo, New York (of all places). [[RidiculouslyAverageGuy Yusef Ali]], a [[UnfazedEveryman straight-laced college student majoring in engineering because his parents told him to]], moves in to what he expects will be a pretty standard all-Muslim flat.

Most of it is a coming-of-age story about young American Muslims struggling to find a way to reconcile their love of Allah (SWT), their cultural identity, and their belonging among the ummah with things like feminism and drinking beer. BetterThanItSounds.

In long: a group of young American Muslims from diverse backgrounds live and hang out together in cheap off-campus housing in Buffalo, New York (of all places). [[RidiculouslyAverageGuy Yusef Ali]], a [[TheArthurDent straight-laced college student majoring in engineering because his parents told him to]], moves in to what he expects will be a pretty standard all-Muslim flat.