Tonight in Toronto, an unusual documentary by Muslim film-maker Omar Majeed is premiering at the ROYAL Cinema. It's called Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam and it follows the rise of a headstrong and liberating new sub-culture that has been bubbling away in North America for the past four or five years.

But we ought to explain the concept of 'Taqwacore' for the un-initiated. After the backlash against the Muslim world following the terrorism and devastation of 9/11, a young American convert to Islam, Michael Muhammad Knight, began to become disillusioned with the orthodox version of the religion which he had discovered and been enthused by as a teenager.

Leaving Islam entirely, however, didn't present itself as a solution to that disillusionment. Instead, Knight sat down and began to write. He wrote self-published (Xerox-printed and spiral-bound) fantasy books about Muslims who, in search of greater cultural freedom and a new image for their beliefs, broke the orthodox mould. One of Knight's books, The Taqwacores, written in the winter of 2002, imagines a group of punk Muslims living in Buffalo, New York. The mohawked and skinheaded rebels in the novel are as challenging to Islamic culture as punk was to traditional pop culture when it crashed onto backstreet stages in Britain during the 1970s.

What happened next is a little stranger than fiction. That's because the fictional 'Taqwacores' sketched by Mike Knight are now a reality and most of them credit Knight with inspiring their rugged, still largely unknown and underground movement. In an interview earlier this year, Knight explained how Muslim teenagers reading copies of his books (the first of which were distributed free as home-made spiral-bound manuscripts), would write to him saying they wanted to make Taqwacore happen. One even thought the book was a real-life account of events and asked to be put in touch with the protagonists.

Now that the fiction is fact, Omar Majeed's documentary film, which follows some of the most prominent and outrageous Taqwacore bands on a shock-spree North America tour, is set to show the world what the movement is like face-to-face. We got in touch with Majeed who, on the day of his film's first public showing, gave us the following, eye-opening interview.

The film premiers tonight - what sort of a reception are you expecting?

I'm obviously hoping for a good turnout and I really hope this film brings out an even number of Muslim and non-Muslim attendees. I really want the film to speak to both sides and inform, ask questions and raise issues about Islam. I will be doing Q & A's for all screenings, but on Saturday 17th October, we're having a special panel featuring myself, Taqwacore's author Michael Muhammad Knight, Toronto activist and Muslim organizer El-Farouk Khakhi, Laury Silvers (an Islamic feminist scholar), and members of The Kominas and Secret Trial Five.

In addition, the bands will be playing a show at Toronto's legendary El Mocambo club after 11pm. Featuring music from The Kominas, Secret Trial Five, Sarmust and various local acts.

You started making the film in 2007 - what are your top memories from the process (either on- or off-camera)?

My favourite moments were ones in which my own stereotypes and preconceived notions were challenged. At the ISNA show, I fully expected the organizers to shut down the event, but did not expect the girls in hijab to be chanting along to the music. In Pakistan, I was sceptical if we could ever find an audience that would embrace Punjabi punk. These surprises really helped me with my own baggage as a confused and contradictory Muslim, and have made me see things in a different light.

Since 2007, how would you say Taqwacore has developed or grown - and where do you think it will go next (with the release of your film in mind)?

Every year I've seen it attract more and more artists and fans, and it's gotten so much press coverage that Michael and the bands are getting fan mail from kids in Indonesia and other places in the Middle East.

I hope that the film, like other Taqwacore art forms, reaches all the people who are looking for this kind of thing, and that it informs everyone about the diversity and complexity of Islam and being Muslim.

Michael Muhammad Knight, the American Muslim convert who inspired Taqwacore.

9/11 was nearly ten years ago now; are the aftershocks still being felt by American Muslims? Is responding to or getting away from that Taqwacore's chief motive or success?

I do think that we need to get post-post 9/11 here. The issues raised from that event are growing staler by the minute. Muslims have been the boogeymen to long (and often contributed to that perception as well). The point is that we need to look at Islam and Muslim culture from all sorts of different perspectives to end the ignorance and the false perception of Islam as this totalitarian monolith. I think Taqwacore is special in this regard for raising a loud and unapologetic voice, free to criticize what needs criticism and free to embrace what can and should be embraced. In the end it's about favouring the complex over that which simplifies. Or something like that....

Do you think Taqwacore has the potential to damage the strength of the religion in favour of cultural freedom, or on the whole do you think it has had a positive religious impact as well for those Muslims who have responded to it?

I don't feel that there is any danger of Taqwacore damaging traditional modes of Islam. It merely offers up alternative approaches. Traditional Islam works for many people, and many kind, generous souls work within that. But it cannot and should not be made into a totalitarian doctrine. That kind of thinking is doing damage not only to the world, but to our own legacy and creativity within Islam. Music, dance, blasphemy and critique have been a part of Islamic history since the beginning and we cannot jettison that truth in favour of the illusion of some 'perfect, pure' Islam. Such a thing is a man-made construct.

Apart from examples like the Kominas and Secret Girl Five - what innovations within the Taqwacore culture have most impressed or inspired you?

Michael's writing is a beautiful instrument of Taqwacore in its own right. Some passages from the book and other subsequent writings by Michael have moved me on a spiritual and artistic level. The guy can write. But I think with this film, a fictional adaptation of The Taqwacores, plays, photo books and graphic designs - we're going to see Taqwacore flourish as an aesthetic, cultural and spiritual scene.

Speaking personally, what has the Taqwacore movement meant to you? What have you gained/learned from it?

I've had my mind opened by this. I'm 36 years old. I'm not really a punk, per se. When I was a teenager, though, I could really have benefited from knowing about this. As it is, through this film, and knowing Michael and The Kominas and travelling on the bus and in Pakistan, I've really come to terms with Islam. Before this film, I would have really hesitated to call myself Muslim - believing that this was not a part of who I am, and that I wasn't entitled to call myself that. But now I think differently. I may be a bad Muslim, but I still am part of the family.

If you hadn't made a film about Taqwacore, what would you have been doing within the movement?

As I said before, I'm 36. I'm too old for this shit. The only thing I could really do is make a documentary. Or maybe play the triangle.