| Secret Trial Five | |
|---|---|
Secret Trial Five (L to R, back row: Nat, Gabi; front row: Sena, Karim, Sidra) |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Vancouver, Canada |
| Genres | Punk rock |
| Years active | 2006–present |
| Labels | Independent |
Secret Trial Five is a five-piece independent political punk band from Toronto, Ontario.
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Sena Hussain formed Secret Trial Five with four friends following 9/11, when she became interested in making music with political messages.[1] Secret Trial Five takes its name from a group of Muslims suspected of terrorism currently held without charge in Canada.[2][3]
In fall 2007, Secret Trial Five toured the United States with Vote Hezbollah, The Kominas, Al-Thawra, and Diacritical on the Taqwatour. Early in September, Secret Trial Five were prevented from finishing their set at a Chicago show hosted by the Islamic Society of North America; some news agencies have reported that it was because the ISNA did not approve of women singing in public,[4][5][6] while others have reported that the audience began quickly leaving during the band's first song.[1]
Though initially identifying with taqwacore and participating in Omar Majeed's Taqwacore documentary, the band later rejected affiliation with the scene, announcing "We're not taqwacore!" on their website: : [7], due to their preference for political ideologies focusing on communities that they more closely identified with.
Among the group's most referenced songs are "Hey Hey Guantanamo Bay" and "Emo-Hurram", the latter a pun on the first month of the Islamic calendar.[8] Other notable songs include Middle Eastern Zombies, We're Not Taqwacore, and Colonizer, a parody of Britney Spears' Womanizer. The band has vocalized their opposition to Israeli Apartheid through songs like BDS, but have been censored on numerous occasions.