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Shakeel Ahmad Bhat

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Shakeel Ahmad Bhat
Bornc. 1979
Jammu and Kashmir, India
OccupationKashmiri activist
Known forMuslim Rage Boy internet meme

Shakeel Ahmad Bhat[a] is a Kashmiri activist[1] known for his appearances in photographs featured on the front pages of several newspapers.[2] In 2007, close-up images of him participating in protests in Srinagar were published in various international media outlets and became the basis of an internet meme,[3] with several bloggers nicknaming him Islamic Rage Boy.[4] He has been written about in newspapers including the Times of India,[5] Middle East Times,[6] France 24,[7] and The Sunday Mail.[8][9][2][1]

Biography

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Bhat was born into a Sufi Muslim family in Jammu and Kashmir, India, sometime in the late 1970s.[10] His father was associated with Jammu and Kashmir Plebiscite Front.[11] In 1986, during a police raid on his home, his sister Sharifa was thrown down a flight of stairs, causing her to break her spine and become bedridden;[12][10] she died in 1992 at the age of 18 due to complications from her injuries.[10] Bhat dropped out of school as a teenager, and in 1991, at the age of 13, he joined a pro-Pakistan militant group called Al-Umar-Mujahideen,[8][11] which he remained part of until his arrest in 1994.[13][14] He was arrested and spent three years in prison, during which he was tortured and subjected to electric shocks. A nail was driven through his jaw.[15] [16] He remained under police surveillance after his release. An injury to his right arm as a result of the torture had left him unable to lift anything, and he has relied on his brothers to support him since then, saying he feels as if he is 110 years old.[17] He lives in Srinagar, where he began participating in demonstrations in 1997. Due to his angry look, he was often photographed by journalists. He took part in protests against the Indian Army, Israel, Pope Benedict XVI, Salman Rushdie, and the cartoons caricaturing Muhammad.[18] According to Free Press Kashmir, by 2021 he had "intermittently spent 24 years and 4 months" in different prisons across India and had 276 FIRs against him.[10] He married in 2020.[10]

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He was featured in numerous blogs and articles by Christopher Hitchens,[19] Kathleen Parker,[20] Michelle Malkin,[21] and others. On various blogs, he was photoshopped as Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler or as an opera singer.[22][23] His picture has also been printed on T-shirts, posters, mouse pads, and beer mugs.[5]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Kashmiri: شکیل احمد بھٹ
  1. ^ a b Butt, Riazat (23 July 2007). "All the rage - victim of US bloggers' cartoon hits back". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 29 December 2013. Retrieved 28 December 2013.
  2. ^ a b Vali Nasr (15 September 2009). Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Hindu Middle Class and What It Will Mean for Our World. Free Press. pp. 256–. ISBN 978-1-4165-9194-8. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  3. ^ Hussain, Ashiq (25 February 2011). "9th case against Kashmir's 'Islamic poster-boy'". Hindustan Times.
  4. ^ Rajghatta, Chidanand (1 July 2007). "Kashmir's 'Rage Boy' invites humour, mirth". The Times of India. India. Archived from the original on 27 January 2012. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
  5. ^ a b Rajghatta, Chidanand (1 July 2007). "Kashmir's 'Rage Boy' invites humour, mirth". Indiatimes. Archived from the original on 28 October 2007. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
  6. ^ Wani, Izhar (5 July 2007). "Muslim 'Rage Boy' says he is really angry". Middle East News. SRINAGAR, India. Archived from the original on 26 September 2007. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
  7. ^ France 24 Archived 20 January 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ a b Patrick French (27 January 2011). India: A Portrait. Penguin Books Limited. pp. 464–. ISBN 978-0-14-194700-6. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 7 June 2019. Shakeel aged all of thirteen, decided to join other young men and go to Pakistan for military training. He was so small that he had to be carried on an older boy's shoulders when he went over the mountains. In Muzaffarabad on the Pakistani side of the border, he was taken to a snow-covered training camp run by the ISI in conjunction with the militant group Al-Umar mujahideen. Armed with an AK-47, he returned to a safe house in Srinagar, hoping — in what now seems a very impractical way — to drive out the Indian troops. 'I thought Kashmir should have the right to self-determination, he said. Shakeel not an effective militant. When I asked him how many people he had killed, he looked embarrassed. 'I gave scares, but I never killed anyone. I couldn't.
  9. ^ Stuart Croft (9 February 2012). Securitizing Islam: Identity and the Search for Security. Cambridge University Press. p. 216. ISBN 978-1-107-02046-7. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  10. ^ a b c d e Zainab (2021). "How blasphemy' gave birth to Kashmir's 'Rage Boy'". Free Press Kashmir.
  11. ^ a b Hussain, Ashiq (25 February 2011). "9th case against Kashmir's 'Islamic poster-boy'". Hindustan Times.
  12. ^ French, Patrick (27 January 2011). India: A Portrait. Penguin Books Limited. p. 332. ISBN 978-0-14-194700-6. When separatists started to fight Indian rule in Kashmir, the security forces arrived. Police who were searching for militants raided Shakeel's home, and threw his beloved eighteen-year-old sister Shareefa out of an upstairs window. She broke her spine, and died from her injuries four years later.
  13. ^ Wani, Izhar (5 July 2007). "Muslim 'Rage Boy' says he is really angry". Middle East News. SRINAGAR, India. Archived from the original on 26 September 2007. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
  14. ^ Butt, Riazat (23 July 2007). "All the rage - victim of US bloggers' cartoon hits back". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 29 December 2013. Retrieved 28 December 2013.
  15. ^ "The sad tale of Shakeel Bhat, AKA Islamic Rage Boy..... - AR15.COM". www.ar15.com. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
  16. ^ French, Patrick (27 January 2011). India: A Portrait. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 978-0-14-194700-6.
  17. ^ French, Patrick (12 April 2012). "The surprising truth about Rage Boy, America's hated poster-boy of Islamic radicalism". The Standard. Retrieved 24 December 2024.
  18. ^ Rajghatta, Chidanand (1 July 2007). "Kashmir's 'Rage Boy' invites humour, mirth". Indiatimes. Archived from the original on 28 October 2007. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
  19. ^ Christopher Hitchens (25 June 2007). "Let's stop channeling angry Muslims". Slate Magazine. Archived from the original on 18 September 2011. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
  20. ^ Parker, Kathleen (29 June 2007). "Rage Boy vs. Civilization". RealClearPolitics. Washington. Archived from the original on 26 November 2010. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
  21. ^ Malkin, Michelle (29 June 2007). "Laughing at Islamic Rage Boy". michellemalkin.com. Archived from the original on 20 November 2010. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
  22. ^ Ledbetter, Brian C. (22 June 2007). "Islamic Rage Boy Parody Roundup". Snapped Shot. Archived from the original on 21 December 2010. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
  23. ^ lumberjack (29 June 2007). "Rage Boy". Are We Lumberjacks?. Blogger. Archived from the original on 8 July 2011. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
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