It already seems like high-censorship season in Pakistan, with Facebook and YouTube being banned by the Lahore high court over the "Draw Muhammad" contest. However, a much more interesting collision is taking place on the media peripheries in Pakistan, only this time the conflict isn't between Islam and the west but between Muslims with very different views of Islam.
Nearly a year after its release, the controversial documentary titled Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam seems finally to have triggered a response from the conservative clerics it censures, after the film was screened at Lahore's National College of Arts.
The documentary follows a group of Muslim punk bands inspired to unite under the banner of "taqwacore" and tour the United States after reading Michael Muhammad Knight's novel based on fictionalised Muslim punks with alternative views on Islam. During the course of the story they discover diverse Muslim cultures including African-American Muslim communities. They also make an appearance at an Islamic convention in Chicago, challenging the closed-minded approach to the religion. The second half of the film follows two band members of the Kominas as they experiment with punk music while travelling through Pakistan where Knight meets them as he rediscovers his own relationship with Islam.
The term "taqwacore" is derived through a mash-up of the Arabic word taqwa meaning faith, or god-consciousness with the punk sub-genre known as hardcore. Taqwacore then becomes a counterculture movement fused with a search for identity, as alienated Muslim youth in America grapple with such issues as the "war on terror", rampant fundamentalism, and the so-called clash of civilisations. Taqwacore bands such as the Kominas have been equally unpopular with fundamentalist Muslims and rightwing US Republicans. In Knight's own words, taqwacore is about "giving the finger to both sides".
As it turns out, one of the sides isn't too pleased about getting the finger. An ultra-conservative Islamic Urdu publication in Pakistan took notice of the screening:
"A Pakistani-born Canadian Muslim and director Omar Majeed has made a documentary film called Taqwacore which has made fun of Islam. Shockingly, it has been revealed that the film was aired in Lahore.
"In the documentary, the members of Taqwacore are on one hand shown praying, and on the other hand, they do such things which are considered very bad by devout Muslims. For example, one female band member, who is a Muslim and a lesbian is shown in the film."
And that isn't all. A firebrand cleric, Mufti Muhammad Naeem who runs the Jamia Binoria seminary, has issued a fatwa, or religious directive, to ban the film "which ridicules Islam" and apprehend those who organised the showing. Even though this has appeared in a no-name publication, such literature is probably consumed by pathologically religious people who might just cause actual harm.
This is the point where these two opposing views of Islam come face to face, where the radical message of taqwacore meets the equally radical reaction of what might be called "fatwacore". Since hardcore fatwas such as this are highly unpredictable by nature, things could go either way from here. Given the volatility of the Muslim world these days, it could easily trigger a full-blown repeat of the Rushdie affair complete with bonfires and burnt effigies or, conversely, it might just as easily slip through the cracks and fizzle out unnoticed.
Regardless of whether this development sparks mass protests or not, it is an important debate which reaches out to the very limits of Islamic thought in terms like spirituality, politics, music, and sexuality. This is a conversation that Islam needs to have with itself, and it will certainly take more than just one documentary. Conservative Islam needs to confront the proliferating diversity of Islam, and needs to come to terms with the fact that subjective interpretations of the religion cannot be limited.
And perhaps those who favour stomping out opposing views through fear and coercion need to be schooled in the ideas of tolerance and empathy that their own faith teaches. More importantly, rather than being suspicious of everything, conservative Islam needs to develop a sense of humour, lighten up a little, and learn to laugh at itself once in a while.
Asif Akhtar, a freelance writer based in Lahore.