Amazing Ayyub, an Iranian Shi'ite skinhead, and Rabeya, a burqa-wearing punk, have kidnapped Matt Damon and are holding him hostage. They demand that Hollywood depict Muslims in a positive light--"just one movie where we're not these two-dimensional al Qaeda stereotypes." But Damon's concerned they'[...]
In Journey to the End of Islam, Michael Muhammad Knight -- whose work has led to him being hailed as both the Jack Kerouac and Hunter S. Thompson of American Islam -- wanders through Muslim countries, navigating between conflicting visions of his religion. Visiting holy sites in Pakistan, Syria, Egy[...]
The Salafi movement invests supreme Islamic authority in the precedents of the Salaf, the first three generations of Muslims, who represent a Golden Age from which all subsequent eras can only decline. In "Why I Am a Salafi," Michael Muhammad Knight confronts the problem of origins, questioning the [...]
Yusef is living in Buffalo, New York with a group of Muslim punks. A pot-smoking mohawked Sufi called Jehangir plays the rooftop call to prayer on his electric guitar, while debates rage downstairs about the Quranic sources for Iggy Pop songs. With a living-room serving as mosque by day and hosting [...]
With a cast of characters ranging from Malcolm X to 50 Cent, Knight's compelling work is the first detailed account of the movement inextricably linked with black empowerment, Islam, New York, and hip-hop. Since their beginning as a cluster of outcasts from the Nation of Islam's Harlem mosque in the[...]