Muslim 'Hipsters' Turn A Joke Into A Serious Conversation; NPR, 12/28/13

Amarra Ghani, NPR; Muslim 'Hipsters' Turn A Joke Into A Serious Conversation: "It started off as a joke, calling themselves Mipsterz, which is short for Muslim hipsters. "It's almost like a very lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek kind of thing where we wanted a space to share ideas that in some way fuse cultures. It's like we're almost creating our own culture by being ourselves," says Abbas Rattani, a curator of the email listserv that calls itself Mipsterz. "The tag line I ended making up was, 'Wait a minute, people hate us because we're Muslim? I thought they hated us because we're hipsters.' It kind of encapsulates the vibe." Late last month, Rattani and a group of Mipsterz released a video to the tune of the Jay-Z song "Somewhere in America" (Full disclosure: I am on the listserv, and I appear in the video.) 　 The video shows diverse Muslim women who choose to wear the hijab, or head covering, and do so with individual style. The women are also seen doing quirky, random things like skateboarding, walking around a forest, and other hipster-esque escapades. The video has sparked huge amounts of commentary."