Blue-eyed Devil [Paperback]

Michael Muhammad Knight (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1570271798 | ISBN-13: 978-1570271793 | Publication Date: March 1, 2007

In his quest for an indigenous "American Islam," Michael Muhammad Knight embarked on a series of interstate odysseys. Traveling 20,000 miles by Greyhound in sixty days, he squatted in run-down mosques, pursued Muslim romance, was detained at the U.S.-Canadian border with a trunkload of Shi'a literature, crashed Islamic Society of North America conventions, stink-palmed Cat Stevens, limped across Chicago to find the grave of Noble Drew Ali, and hunted down the truth of the Nation of Islam mystery-man, W.D. Fard - filling dozens of notebooks along the way. In the course of his adventures Knight sorted out his own relationship to Islam on his journey from punk provocateur to a recognized voice in the community, and watched first-hand the collapse of a liberal Islamic dream, the Progressive Muslim Union. Taking a unique perspective on Islam's intersection with race, gender, andAmericanization, Blue-Eyed Devil offers a brutally honest but ultimately compassionate look at the long, strange history of American Islam.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This book should contribute immensely to retiring the public's knee-jerk reaction to Islam. Blue-Eyed Devil is a masterpiece. --Andrei Codrescu

About the Author

Michael Muhammad Knight converted to Islam at age 16 after reading Malcolm X’s biography, and a year later spent two months at Faisal Mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan. Following a period of strict Wahhabism, he left orthodox Islam to explore the religion on his own terms. His Muslim-punk novel The Taqwacores was first published as a zine, which he distributed in mosque parking lots and at punk shows, before being picked up by Autonomedia. His writing regularly appears on the progressive Islamic website MuslimWakeUp.com. He lives in Western New York State.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Autonomedia (March 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570271798
• ISBN-13: 978-1570271793
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,198,473 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A unique journey, May 3, 2007

By 

Kool Side (Paris, France & SF Bay Area) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blue-eyed Devil (Paperback)

This road Odyssey through Islamic America is facinating, and will be enjoyed by those who are quite new to this matter as much as by those who are already familiar with the deep facts and legends regarding the presence of the Islamic faith in America. A talented author (sort of a story teller like Slick Rick or GhostFace), Knight is sharing his car and greyhound trips, his questioning and faith, his anger and love, his hopes and fears in full honesty... In all his trips and tribulations he ends up painting the face of nowadays muslim America... muslim punks, muslims for Bush, ego oriented progressives, five percenters, and simple sincere believers... Knight meets them all along his journey, in the streets, in masjids, in cemeteries.
He make readers laugh and shock some others, unaware of the often provocative content of Knights writings. He writes about who he is, straight from the guts, his honesty is what matter ultimately since he's not asking anyone to think like and what he thinks. He met, in his very unique way, face to face with Islam in America, its present diversity and ancient history. His quest to uncover the mystery surrounding Master Fard's life(s) is one of the key component of the book and one of the key to understand the different faces of Islam in America today.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Something For The Seekers, May 20, 2009

By 

James Rogers "Renaissance Subversive" (Oklahoma City, OK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blue-eyed Devil (Paperback)

Got this from the cut-out bin at my local big box, which is a damn shame. That being said, I'm glad it was there, because I loved this book. Knight doesn't run from the conflicts throughout the various strains of Islam in the U.S. Instead, he distills a unique and personal understanding, and invites us to share and take what we will. I found his journey profoundly moving, and one to which I could personally relate. As someone who's dug through his own share of mess on the Christian side of things, I'm quite thankful for Mr. Knight's courage and candor. It's a hell of a fun read, and spiritually engaging for those who read with open minds and hearts.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars On The Road and Catcher in the Rye meet The Autobiography of Malcolm X, May 8, 2009

By 

Maxwell Grant (Pelham, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blue-eyed Devil (Paperback)

I taught this book last year in a high school "Introduction to Islam" course.

My students responded to it powerfully -- Michael Muhammad Knight is a hip-hop Holden Caulfield, shockingly honest and problematically Muslim, a white kid from Buffalo who found Islam after listening to "Public Enemy" and then found himself for a time in Pakistan.

It isn't a "nice" book, and the story is not "clean," either narratively or morally. Many will be troubled about the notion of Knight as a "spokesman" for Islam in any respect. In a quest for "balance," I found myself supplementing the book with other more mainstream voices of those who have re-verted to Islam, and I'm glad I did. Not all stories are so messy, and it's tempting (especially for students) to romanticize that mess...although, to his credit, that is not Knight's aim.

But Knight uses his own messy story to explore the complexity of American Islam: its aspirations, competing narratives of liberation, its challenges for young people, and especially for those raised in the faith but trying to find their place as Americans within mainstream culture, etc.

And Knight's portrayal of that complexity -- how bewildering it can be -- is accurate in many ways. Accurate about some of the fault lines, anyway.

It is also a "road book," and Knight goes all over the country by bus and beat up car in search of love, recognition, and in ambivalent pilgrimage to the historic sites of American Islam.

It brings up many things and asks more questions than it answers. After a while, we all got sick of it. And yet, my students described it as a highlight of the term.

There are many other wonderful books to choose that talk about modern Islam. And yet, this is one with the capacity to move many people in ways that can be surprising...and to surprise many people in ways that can be moving.