REPORTER:  Sophie McNeill

THE KOMINAS:  Hello London. We're from Boston, how are you doing. How are you doing?

It's Saturday night in London at Hoxton's Underbelly Club's. There is a new band causing a stir. 'The Kominas', which means scumbag in Punjabi are on their first international tour. Bringing their unique blend of what has been labeled Islamic punk to new audiences. Courting controversy is part of the package for these boys from Boston. This song is called 'Sharia Law in The USA'.

THE KOMINAS, SONG:   I am an Islamist, I am the Antichrist – most squares don’t make the wanted list, but my, my how I stay in style.   Cops chased me out of my mother’s womb, my crib was in state pen before age two. The cops bugged my red toy phone so I devised a plan for heads to roll. Sharia law… in the USA. 

Back in the US and I'm on my way to Boston with the band's drummer, 26-year-old Imran Malik, for a recording session. Born in New Jersey to Pakistani immigrants, Imran Malik moved to Islamabadto study medicine, it was there that he started playing music with his fellow US 'The Kominas' members. The first band was called 'The Dead Bhuttos '.

IMRAN MALIK, THE KOMINA’S DRUMMER: We released one song that was quite political and really catchy, but no-one would play it because they were afraid of the content of it. It wasn't a home for us in Pakistan, which that proved - we have to do this music here. Now that we live here, it's like we do talk about Pakistan, we think about Pakistan a lot, but we are an American band. 

Away from the constraints of conservative Pakistan, their music took off and 'The Kominas' were formed in 2005.

REPORTER:   Imran Malik, what is that song about?

IMRAN MALIK: It's meaning "Go to hell", in Punjaby, and it talks about the cops, talking about Mafia, political groups in Pakistan, and it's talking about Malanas, the clerics, the religious clerics in Pakistan, telling them all to go to hell, basically.

Other  Komina songs mock stereo typical perceptions of Muslims. This number is called 'Suicide Bomb the Gap', a reference to iconic American clothing chain GAP. Guitarist Shajehan Khan said it was written for a bit of a laugh.

SHAJEHAN KHAN:  Honestly, really the way that it was written is people, I think, me,  Basim and Mike were sitting around and Mike was like "I think it's be funny if a song was called 'Suicide Bomb the Gap'", and so the song actually came out around that.

The song's lyrics are just as provocative as it’s title.

SHAJEHAN KHAN:  Mary is only famous for being a virgin; our Aisha was humping like Rasta’s are toking. Just ignore whores, maybe if boys weren’t his ho’s then Mohammed would have kept Mary Magdalene moaning.  So, those are some of the lyrics. Suicide bomb the gap… suicide bomb the gaaap…  

Basim Usmani is 'The Kominas''s lead singer and says many of the songs from the first album, 'Wild Nights at Guantanamo Bay' are about the frustrations of growing up a young Muslim in America.

BASIM USMANI:  'Wild Nights at Guantanamo Bay' - Pakistani American thing, taking the piss out of it, satirising it, laughing about it, saying offensive things just to get over some of the things that disassociate you from life in the states. Osama bin Laden before he was a household name, I got teased about him. Three years before 9/11. Three years before the towers dropped. It was still very, very racist. People didn't really know. They were like "I got called a dirty Hindu for being from Pakistan and all sorts of stuff. People were "You're from Pakistanand you don't know Arabic". I'm like "It's not Arabic speaking country", they don't have a clue.

For some of the band member, punk music was also a way to rebel against Conservative Muslim upbringing.

IMRAN MALIK: Dating was taboo for me growing Um. My parents were really strict about that stuff. So religion was the source of - it was like literally contradicting my hormones, and I was that's why - it was tough, tough to reconcile those things.

Fresh from their UK success, Imran Malik and Shajehan Khan are catching up with good friend Michael Mohammed Knight.

SHAJEHAN KHAN:  After you left, we drove to Bristol, and then Manchester.

Michael Mohammed Knight has had a huge musical influence on 'The Kominas'. The Muslim convert is credited with starting the Islamic punk rock movement in America after he self-published his book, 'The Taqwacores' about a fictional Muslim punk scene in Buffalo New York.

MICHAEL MOHAMMED KNIGHT: I'm not a big fan of organised religion, but I like disorganised religion and I wanted to disorganise Islam, I wanted a distablised Islam. I wanted to walk into a mosque and have no Imam telling me what a book said, what a prophet said. I pictured this  punk house where there's all these different types of characters, some drink, some don't, some pray, some don’t and there's no-one in charge. So the person who decides you are Islamwhen you walk into this house is you, Islam is completely in your hands.

Knight's book has been turned into a feature filmed premiering at this year’s Sundance Festival.

MICHAEL MOHAMMED KNIGHT: You felt like you could cross out the word of god. You have this engineering student in Yusef, a middle of the road conservative good kid, and he moves into this house thinking that, you know, these are regular Muslims, nothing different. It turns out that one of them is a sloppy classic '77 style drunk punk slob and the other is straight edge hardline conservative. The other is, you know, a riot girl feminist who wears a full burka but will cross out a verse of the Koran if she doesn't like it, and you have a guy smoking weed on the roof while he reads Koran.

Mike can't believe his self-published book has gone this far.

MICHAEL MOHAMMED KNIGHT: I started out making copies at kinkos, self binding it with spiral binding and just sending it off for free. I gave it away in parking lots.

'The Taqwacores' novels were read by many young Muslims across America who decided to turn Mike’s imaginary punk world into a reality.

MICHAEL MOHAMMED KNIGHT: This kid in Texas, an Iranian kid he wrote to me and he wanted to meet these characters. I said "There's no such thing, it's fiction", he said "I'm Taqwacore". That's the first time my words were thrown back at me, that there was such a thing as Taqwacore.

'The Kominas' were among the first to have read Mike's book and decide to form a Taqwacore punk band.

SHAJEHAN KHAN:  Basim gave me a copy of 'The Taqwacores' when I was 19. I liked it a lot because I never thought anyone could speak about Islam in that way. I was confused about a few things - really kind of related to the main character. That was what brought us together and the important thing is it helped us make music together.

IMRAN MALIK: Islam has been something that people are afraid to talk about, afraid to be creative with. That's why this book and the stuff that maybe we have done is like important, because it is not something that anybody has decidedly talked about just because it's scary, almost, what if somebody will blow me up, what about fatwa.

Whilst in the United Kingdom, 'The Kominas' were recorded live by the BBC bringing the 'The Taqwacores' genre to a whole new audience. Lead singer Basim Usmani is desperate for the band not to be pigeon holed.

BASIM USMANI:  I abhor the term Muslim Punk and I abhor it because I feel it cuts people out. We’re not trying to proselytize Islam. I mean, like, when Sting throws in a Christian reference in a song by the Police…no one says he trying to proselytize and I think it is a little bit racist also.

Tonight 'The Kominas' are playing an important gig in New York.

SHAJEHAN KHAN:  We are basically playing with one of the most well-known Pakistani bands of all time. Well, the singer Ali Azmat was in this ban Zanoon which basically revolutionized Pakistani underground rock music. I sat in my room for nearly four years and learned every song they wrote.

Based in Lahore Pakistan, singer Ali Azmat doesn't enjoy the luxuries 'The Kominas' have here in the US.

ALI AZMAT:  Just lately there has been lots of bombs going off so you don’t really get permissions for public gatherings so for the last three or four months that’s been the case. We haven’t played a single gig. I hope it doesn’t last too long because it will drive us nuts because that’s all we know how to do.

The first single off his new record is called ‘Bomb Phata’  - a commentary on the civil unrest in his country.

ALI AZMAT:  You are a product of your environment - I mean you can’t escape it. As much as you would like to escape it and sing about babes on the fifth avenue - I don’t get to see them. It’s a social reaction. We are not revolutionaries we are just reacting to what’s society has become

The Kominas are excited about what the future holds. They have a new album to promote and are playing to bigger audiences than ever before. While they won't deny their heritage or the experiences, which got them to where they are today, the band is keen to branch out of the label of Islamic punk rock and let their music speak for itself. 

Reporter/Camera

SOPHIE MCNEILL

Producer

VICTORIA STROBL

Researcher

DONALD CAMERON

Editor

DAVID POTTS

Original Music composed by

VICKI HANSEN 

Footage courtesy of Rumanni Filmworks and Visit Films

26th September 2010