Do-Over

“So, you wrote The Taqwacores so long ago, and in the making of the movie, it was kind of a re-writing process, right? So if you could do it all over again, re-write The Taqwacores, would you change anything?” I was sitting with the Taqwacore posse once again at the pizza place on Main St. talking to Mike Knight. My mind was still reeling from just watching The Taqwacores movie earlier that evening.

He responded saying that when he wrote the book in 2002, he was in his mid-twenties. When he had converted to Islam at the age of 17, he was scared of women. The orthodox Islam he was indoctrinated made him unable to understand girls and women. His response reminded me of his memoir Impossible Man which tracks his youth and conversion into Islam, by far one of my favorite Knight books. His response to my question implied that if he were to re-write The Taqwacores now, that he is in a far more positive space with regards to women. I wondered to myself what that may look like, how women would enter The Taqwacores if he were to rewrite it today.