Taqwacore is a genre of punk music dealing with Islam and its culture, originally conceived in Michael Muhammad Knight's novel, The Taqwacores. The name is a portmanteau of hardcore and the Arabic word Taqwa, which is usually translated as "piety" or the quality of being "God-fearing", and thus roughly denotes fear and love of the divine.
The first bands to use the term taqwacore were The Kominas, 8-bit and Vote Hezbollah. Other bands on the scene include Diacritical and Secret Trial Five.
There is not a definitive "taqwacore sound," as artists incorporate various styles, ranging from punk to hip-hop, and musical traditions from the Muslim world; the Kominas describe their sound as "Bollywood punk" while Al-Thawra uses the term "raicore," based on Arabic Raï music (see rai).
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