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Michael Muhammad Knight

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Michael Muhammad Knight
Knight entering the wrestling ring for his fight against "Ibrahim Hooper"
Born1977 (age 48–49)
EducationHarvard University (MTS)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (PhD)
Occupations
  • author
  • scholar

Michael Muhammad Knight (born 1977) is an American author, scholar, and convert to Islam.[1] His writings are popular among American Muslim youth.[2] The San Francisco Chronicle described him as "one of the most necessary and, paradoxically enough, hopeful writers of Barack Obama's America,"[3] while The Guardian has described him as "the Hunter S. Thompson of Islamic literature,"[4] and his non-fiction work exemplifies the principles of gonzo journalism.[5] Publishers Weekly describes him as "Islam's gonzo experimentalist."[6] Within the American Muslim community, he has earned a reputation as an ostentatious cultural provocateur.

He obtained a Master of Theological Studies degree from Harvard University in 2011 and received his Ph.D. in Islamic studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2016.[7] As of 1022 Knight was an associate professor of religion and cultural studies in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Central Florida.[8]

Biography

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Knight grew up in Geneva, New York, raised by his mother in a Catholic family of Irish descent. Knight's first exposure to Islam came when he was 13 when he discovered Malcolm X through the lyrics of the hip-hop band, Public Enemy. After reading Alex Haley's The Autobiography of Malcolm X at 15, Knight's study of Islam intensified and he converted to Islam. It was also at 15 that Knight met his father, Wesley Unger, for the first time since he was two years old; when Knight informed Unger that he was Muslim, Unger told Knight that he was a white supremacist. At 17, Knight traveled to Islamabad, Pakistan, to study Islam at Faisal Mosque. He came close to making the decision to abandon this course of study to join the war against Russian rule in Chechnya.[9]

On August 2, 2009, he married Sadaf Khatri in San Jose, California.[10]

Books

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After disillusionment with orthodox Islam, Knight wrote two books, Where Mullahs Fear to Tread and The Furious Cock, which he printed as photocopied zines. In Winter 2002 he wrote The Taqwacores, which told the story of a fictitious group of Muslim punk-rockers living in Buffalo, New York. Knight originally self-published the novel as a spiral-bound photocopy and gave it away for free. The book was later picked up for distribution by Alternative Tentacles, the punk record label founded by Jello Biafra. An encounter with Peter Lamborn Wilson led to The Taqwacores being published by Autonomedia in 2004.[citation needed]

The Taqwacores was intended as Knight's farewell to Islam,[11] but encouragement from readers caused Knight to reconsider his relationship to the faith. The novel has since inspired the start of an actual taqwacore scene, including bands such as the Kominas, Vote Hezbollah, and Secret Trial Five. Carl W. Ernst, specialist in Islamic studies at UNC, called The Taqwacores a "Catcher in the Rye for young Muslims."[12]

Knight's tenth book, Why I am a Salafi was released in 2015 by Soft Skull/Counterpoint. The book begins after Knight's ayahuasca vision in Tripping with Allah, visiting a mosque in Los Angeles and performing conventional Muslim prayer while still feeling ayahuasca's effects. The book then becomes a critical reflection on issues of scriptural interpretation, traditionalism and religious revivalism, and the Salafi movement to which Knight converted as a teenager. Publishers Weekly named the book one of its "Best Books of 2015."[13]

Knight's eleventh book, Magic in Islam was released in 2016 by Tarcher/Penguin Books. Magic in Islam examines traditions such as astrology, Hermeticism, amulets and talismans as practiced in Islamic contexts, with focus on deconstructing boundaries between Islam and other religions, as well as the divisions between magic and religion at large. In the journal Correspondences, Kurosh Amoui describes the work as a reflection of Knight's "fascinated with fringe and marginalized narratives of Islam" (he quotes Knight as wondering whether “this book should just be called Weird Shit in Islam"), and identifies its main point as showcasing and proving that "Islams (plural) 'other' than the orthodox and the mainstream also exist or are possible to exist".[1] Knight sees magic, along with religion, as victims of "‘advanced’ scientific nations" which invaded and colonized "magical peoples who had failed [in the minds of the colonialists] to properly develop”.[1]

  • Where Mullahs Fear to Tread
  • The Furious Cock
  • The Taqwacores (2002)
  • Blue-Eyed Devil
  • The Five Percenters
  • Osama Van Halen (novel, 2009)
  • Impossible Man (memoir, 2009)
  • Why I Am a Five Percenter (memoir, 2011)
  • William S. Burroughs vs. the Qur'an (2012)
  • Tripping with Allah: Islam, Drugs, and Writing (autobiography, 2013)
  • Why I am a Salafi (autobiography, 2015)
  • Magic in Islam (2016)

See also

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References

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  1. 1 2 3 Amoui, Kurosh (2020). "Review of "Magic in Islam" by Michael Muhammad Knight". Correspondences. 8 (1): 141–145. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  2. ↑ Maag, Christopher (December 22, 2008). "Young Muslims Build a Subculture on an Underground Book". The New York Times.
  3. ↑ Berrett, Jesse (August 5, 2009). "Fiction review: Michael Muhammad Knight books". The Chronicle.
  4. ↑ Whitaker, Brian (March 19, 2007). "Punk Muslims". The Guardian. London.
  5. ↑ Bowe, Brian J. (Spring 2012). "A Brain Full of Contraband: The Islamic Gonzo Writing of Michael Muhammad Knight" (PDF). Literary Journalism Studies, The International Association of Literary Journalism Studies. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Religion Book Review: Tripping With Allah by Michael Muhammad Knight. Soft Skull (PGW, dist.) $15.95 trade paper (256p) ISBN 978-1-59376-443-2". Publishersweekly.com. Retrieved September 5, 2020.
  7. ↑ "Current Graduate Students – Department of Religious Studies". Archived from the original on September 26, 2011. Retrieved October 1, 2011.
  8. ↑ "Michael Muhammed Knight – Philosophy at UCF". Retrieved July 4, 2022.
  9. ↑ Brian Whitaker (March 19, 2007). "Punk Muslims". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on June 27, 2007. Retrieved January 11, 2008.
  10. ↑ Sadaf Khatri and Michael Knight Wedding Archived 2010-04-05 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ↑ Omar Sacirbey. "The Challenges and Growth of Progressive Muslims". APF Reporter Vol.22 #2. Alicia Patterson Fellowship. Archived from the original on February 6, 2006. Retrieved May 15, 2007.
  12. ↑ Carl W. Ernst. "Novels from Muslim Countries". Retrieved May 15, 2007.
  13. ↑ "Publishers Weekly selects Andrea Kleine's Calf and Michael Muhammad Knight's Why I Am a Salafi among Best Books of 2015". Archived from the original on August 21, 2016. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
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Interviews

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