Abstained Agogo - Muslimcore:

1- Have you read The Taqwacores or its silly spin off, Osama Van Halen by Michael Muhammad Knight? You should. The book, The Taqwacore, even inspired a new "genre" of punk music called Taqwacore spearheaded by prominent "Taqwa bands" in the likes of The Kominas and Vote Hezbollah. Search them on youtube, you might find them entertaining.

2- Taqwacore is basically an amalgamation of punk idealism and Islamic Mystic or Sufism. Oh, the movie will be out pretty soon too, I think. From the looks of the trailer on youtube, the movie seems to be interesting enough.

3- Fascinating enough, back in the middle of the 90's, I do not know who but somebody had coined the term Muslimcore. I do not know whether it was a legit ideology or just a derogatory sarcastic remark against those who opposed Straightedge back in the days. But the term did exist in the local scene, way before the release of The Taqwacore novel from the booth of Knight's car back in 2002 nevertheless.

4- Would you associate Islam with punk? I do not know about you but I dont. Just my worthless two cents.

Abstained Agogo - The Millenium Definition:

1- There were a few blogs and websites in the cyber-space that were kind enough to republish my article on definition of punk, an article I wrote like ages ago for Cintakan Aman Newsletter. As you might have known by now, this blog basically is just a continuation of that now defunct newsletter hence the name Cintakan Aman Blog but nobody cares about that anyway, so...

2- When I read that old article of mine from these silly blogs, I often thought of how innocent and naive was I back then. Maybe out of sheer youthful excitement or that rebellion of a young mind that I associate almost everything with the term Punk, to an extent, I was like, "Wow. did I wrote that?". Fuck. Well at least I thought it was kind of cool at that time doing that.

3- Punk, for me, was a counter-culture. If the culture at that time endorses corduroys, nice slacks, collage hair cuts and Pete Frampton, then punk would be like leather jackets, torn jeans, mohawks, spikes and Sex Pistols. Going against the popular culture. Although nowadays, it has become a popular culture by itself (thanks to the capitalists), the relevance of punk is still there nevertheless.

4- Other than and beyond that, is up to the individuals really. There were never any boundaries on how you should define it. You can define it, you can associate it with anything you like and you can un-associate it. The world would still spin you know.

5- For me, Punk is just a platform for you to learn, define and redefine life. You can achieve very much the same things with other platforms in the likes of religions, schools or books. Embrace it and open your mind.

6- As for me, as I grew older I tend to associate things as it is. Human nature. Equality because everyone should be equal, love because everyone deserves love, human rights because that is the nature of it and the way it should be. Punk or no punk.

7- Just my worthless two cents.

Abstained Agogo - Copyright or Copyrespect:

1- I have never imposed any copyright rights on anything I wrote. Whether if it's in this blog, Abstained or in Flag and most probably never will impose such rights. But that does not mean that people can just steal anything from in here, Abstained or Flag without proper courtesy of the original source. For me, that is wrong and an infringement of rights.

2- I do not mind if people want to plagiarize the whole content of any of my fanzine as long as it is for a non profit project like Koleksizine etc but I expect to be informed of such act and my blessing should be sought after. That, my friends, are called courtesy and respect.

3- It all goes down to the whole debate of individualism and collectivism in Hardcore Punk. Collectivism is the root and the origin which fertilized another broad and fascinating idea called communism. Individualism on the other hand is human nature. Which one should come first.

4- There must be a well maintained balance between the two. If a punk rock author refuses to let people steal any of his work, then it is his right to do so. Is that not an individual right worth the respect? Is a punk rocker still a punk rocker for not letting people use any of his work? My answer would be in the positive. If you think otherwise, then you are an outright Fascist.

5- Just my worthless two cents.