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Osama Van Halen
Taqwacore band from the 2009 novel Osama van Halen by Michael Muhammad Knight. Despite being also being the title of the novel, they are only mentioned twice.
The van had gone nine thousand miles with him and had been through enough to become a character in the story, too. It was in this van that Ayyub carted taqwacore bands like the Mutaweens, Vote Hezbollah, and Osama Van Halen on their tours. The stolen amp was revenge after that show in Oakland when the club owner had stiffed the Gandoos out of their money Those bands were genuine taqwa-punks and did it only for the taqwa, nothing else.
... He kept himself and his qareen company by singing songs: first his favorite, Sham 69’s “Hey Little Rich Boy,” and then California taqwacore songs, like the “Ballad of Walid Al-Taha,” an abrasive but sentimental pure punk hymn that Osama Van Halen could bust out in under a minute. Amazing Ayyub knew all about Walid Al-Taha and the Moorish Orthodox Church from driving Osama Van Halen around on their tour. Ayyub had grown tight enough with the band that at one show they’d put him onstage and done “Last Resort,” putting Ayyub’s name in the lyrics while he stomped around: Oi, oi, Ayyub, get your hair cut !
