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Book Cover for: Osama Van Halen, Michael Muhammad Knight

Osama Van Halen

Michael Muhammad Knight

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're playing into that same terrorist paradigm, thereby furthering the neoconservative perception of Islam.

Meanwhile, Ayyub embarks on a mission to rid the taqwacore scene of a Muslim pop-punk band called Shah 79. Along the way, he makes himself invisible, escapes punk-eating zombies in a mosque off the desert highway, and runs into some psychobilly jinns. Things turn existential when Ayyub finds himself face-to-face with his creator--no, not Allah, but the author.

This riotous journey of enlightenment reads like a religious service for teenagers on Halloween. But it isn't all raucous fun; written into his own novel, the author finds he is at the mercy of his creation.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Catapult
  • Publish Date: Jun 2nd, 2009
  • Pages: 224
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.16in - 5.52in - 0.59in - 0.50lb
  • EAN: 9781593762421
  • Categories: Science Fiction - General

About the Author

Michael Muhammad Knight is a novelist, essayist, journalist, and scholar. He converted to Islam at sixteen and traveled to Islamabad at seventeen to study at a madrasa. His books include The Taqwacores, Blue-Eyed Devil, Tripping with Allah: Islam, Drugs, and Writing, and Why I Am a Salafi. He is an assistant professor of religious studies at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

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Book Cover for: Sufi Deleuze: Secretions of Islamic Atheism, Michael Muhammad Knight
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Book Cover for: Metaphysical Africa: Truth and Blackness in the Ansaru Allah Community, Michael Muhammad Knight
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Book Cover for: Impossible Man, Michael Muhammad Knight
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Praise for this book

"A manifesto for the Muslim punk movement."
"An absolutely fascinating book...could well become an essential text."