"Then Vote Hezbollah Did a Pro-Bush Song That Pissed Everyone Off

but that was the whole point and even when the crowd booed, they had a great time doing it because they got the joke. You have to stop trying to make sense of Punk - what it's for, what it's against. It's against everything. The singer from Vote Hezbollah pissed on the Qur'an. Everyone loved it. Then he picked up the kitab, shook some drips off, carefully turned the frail wet pages and recited Ya Sin with absolute sincerity. Somehow, the whole thing made sense."

"They're a Different Bunch," Replied Jehangir,

his eyes stuck on the closed door.

"They're a buncha cocks," said Muzammil.

"They're decent guys," said Jehangir. "They'll give you anything. If all they have to give you is a fuckin' Bic pen, they'll fork it over. But they're a little rough to deal with sometimes-"

"Hatemongers, Jehangir. Fuckin' bigots. If they had their way I'd be tossed from a minaret." Jehangir paused for a moment.

"Yeah," he said softly. "Yeah, Muzammil. They hate you. And they hate me too. They hate all of us for something. Me for the beer in my hand, you for the cock in your mouth, Rabeya for having her clitoris intact. We're all going something haram. Look at us. We're the ones that have always been fuckin' excluded, ostracized, afraid to be ourselves around our fuckin' brothers. They don't build masjids for us. We have to get our own. A fuckin' fag mosque in Toronto, you know I'm all for it. Female imams, God bless 'em. Whatever. You know I don't give a shit. But let's not play that bullshit game where once we get our own scene we can push people to the sidelines, to the fuckin' fringe like they did us. Do you only want a community so you can make someone else feel like the Outsider?" His voice gradually raised. "Fuck that, he said sharply. "Fuck being as small as they are. I say be big. Be bigger. Kill 'em with kindness. How the fuck are they going to hate you when you love them?"

"Why Don't You Have Any Taqwacore Bands?" I Asked.

"Because the fuckers put all their shit out on vinyl."

"What? Why?"

"They just do," he answered shrugging.

"But who even has a record player anymore?"

"I do," said Jehangir. "But just so I can listen to those guys. And it fuckin' sucks because it can't record from vinyl to a cassette, the shit's so old."

"I don't get the vinyl thing," I said. "Is there some kind of ideological point behind that?"

"Maybe. A lot of punks turn out to be sentimental suckers."

"Like Amazing Ayyub last night," Fasiq interjected, "when he said that there hasn't been any real punk since 1980."

"What does that have to do with vinyl?" I asked. "Do they think that they're closer to the Lost Golden Age by rejecting CDs? What does that have to do with anything?"