{{short description|Kashmiri activist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}} {{EngvarB|date=February 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = Shakeel Ahmad Bhat | image = | caption = | birth_date = {{circa|1979}} | birth_place = Jammu and Kashmir, India | death_date = | death_place = | death_cause = | occupation = Kashmiri activist | known_for = Muslim Rage Boy internet meme }}
'''Shakeel Ahmad Bhat''' is a Kashmiri activist and former militant<ref name=Butt2007>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jul/23/india.digitalmedia |last=Butt |first=Riazat |title=All the rage - victim of US bloggers' cartoon hits back |newspaper=The Guardian |date=23 July 2007 |access-date=28 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131229111317/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jul/23/india.digitalmedia |archive-date=29 December 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref> who has become a minor internet celebrity.<ref name="Nasr2009">{{cite book|author=Vali Nasr|title=Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Hindu Middle Class and What It Will Mean for Our World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4eNp-IAeILkC&pg=PT256|date=15 September 2009|publisher=Free Press|isbn=978-1-4165-9194-8|pages=256–|access-date=7 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331210828/https://books.google.com/books?id=4eNp-IAeILkC&pg=PT256|archive-date=31 March 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> 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,<ref name=HT2011>{{cite web |last=Hussain |first=Ashiq |date=25 February 2011 |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/9th-case-against-kashmir-s-islamic-poster-boy/story-A5SqqnSCLIhaFfIDRYNCbK_amp.html |title=9th case against Kashmir's 'Islamic poster-boy' |work=Hindustan Times}}</ref> with several bloggers popularly nicknaming him ''Islamic Rage Boy''.<ref name="Rajghatta_Chidanand">{{cite news|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Kashmirs-Rage-Boy-invites-humour-mirth/articleshow/2164387.cms|title=Kashmir's 'Rage Boy' invites humour, mirth|last=Rajghatta|first=Chidanand|date=1 July 2007|location=India|access-date=16 February 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120127222740/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2007-07-01/us/27994267_1_t-shirts-poster-boy-protests|archive-date=27 January 2012|work=The Times of India|url-status=live}}</ref> He has been written about in newspapers including the ''Times of India'',<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite news|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Kashmirs_Rage_Boy_invites_humour/articleshow/2164387.cms|title=Kashmir's 'Rage Boy' invites humour, mirth|last=Rajghatta|first=Chidanand|date=1 Jul 2007|work=Indiatimes|access-date=6 November 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071028031439/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Kashmirs_Rage_Boy_invites_humour/articleshow/2164387.cms|archive-date=28 October 2007|url-status=live}}</ref> ''Middle East Times'',<ref name=MET2007>{{cite web|url=http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070705-023815-9625r|title=Muslim 'Rage Boy' says he is really angry|last=Wani|first=Izhar|date=5 July 2007|work=Middle East News|access-date=6 November 2010|location=SRINAGAR, India|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926231217/http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070705-023815-9625r|archive-date=26 September 2007}}</ref> France 24,<ref>[http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/administration/afp-news.html?id=070705024929.1cr624yt&cat=null France 24<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080120025902/http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/administration/afp-news.html?id=070705024929.1cr624yt&cat=null |date=20 January 2008 }}</ref> and ''The Sunday Mail''.<ref name="French2011">{{cite book |author=Patrick French |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bf48JIIoLVoC&pg=PT464 |title=India: A Portrait |date=27 January 2011 |publisher=Penguin Books Limited |isbn=978-0-14-194700-6 |pages=464– |quote=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. |access-date=7 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331202859/https://books.google.com/books?id=bf48JIIoLVoC&pg=PT464 |archive-date=31 March 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Croft2012">{{cite book|author=Stuart Croft|title=Securitizing Islam: Identity and the Search for Security|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h4iRXzjHPUUC&pg=PA217|date=9 February 2012|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-02046-7|page=216|access-date=7 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331125019/https://books.google.com/books?id=h4iRXzjHPUUC&pg=PA217|archive-date=31 March 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Nasr2009"/><ref name=Butt2007/>
==Biography== Bhat was born into a Sufi Muslim family in Jammu and Kashmir, India, sometime in the late 1970s.<ref name="FPK20212">{{Cite web |author=Zainab |date=2021 |title=How blasphemy' gave birth to Kashmir's 'Rage Boy' |url=https://freepresskashmir.news/2021/12/09/how-blasphemy-gave-birth-to-kashmirs-rage-boy/amp/ |work=Free Press Kashmir}}</ref> His father was associated with Jammu and Kashmir Plebiscite Front.<ref name="HT20112">{{cite web |last=Hussain |first=Ashiq |date=25 February 2011 |title=9th case against Kashmir's 'Islamic poster-boy' |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/9th-case-against-kashmir-s-islamic-poster-boy/story-A5SqqnSCLIhaFfIDRYNCbK_amp.html |work=Hindustan Times}}</ref> In interviews given to different news outlets, Bhat has alleged that his sister Sharifa died as a result of injuries sustained from violence by police during a police raid on his home. The year of the police raid and her death, her age, and the exact cause of her death are uncertain, with various versions in media.{{efn|According to Patrick French, a British writer who interviewed him in 2007, his home was raided sometime following the beginning of the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir, where his 18 year old sister was thrown out of a window. She broke her spine as a result and died four years later at the age of 22.<ref>{{Cite book |last=French |first=Patrick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bf48JIIoLVoC&pg=PA9 |title=India: A Portrait |date=2011-01-27 |publisher=Penguin Books Limited |isbn=978-0-14-194700-6 |pages=332 |language=en |quote=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.}}</ref> According to Free Press Kashmir, which interviewed him in 2021, his sister was thrown down a flight of stairs in 1986 when she was 12, becoming bed-ridden as a result, and died in 1992 at the age of 18.<ref name="FPK20212" /> According to a 2011 Hindustan Times story, his sister died in 1994 after suffering a heart attack during a police raid at the age of 14.<ref name="HT20112"/>}} 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,<ref name="French2011" /><ref name="HT20112" /> which he remained part of until his arrest in 1994.<ref name="MET20072">{{cite web |last=Wani |first=Izhar |date=5 July 2007 |title=Muslim 'Rage Boy' says he is really angry |url=http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070705-023815-9625r |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926231217/http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070705-023815-9625r |archive-date=26 September 2007 |access-date=6 November 2010 |work=Middle East News |location=SRINAGAR, India}}</ref><ref name="Butt2007" /> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The sad tale of Shakeel Bhat, AKA Islamic Rage Boy..... - AR15.COM |url=https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/The_sad_tale_of_Shakeel_Bhat__AKA_Islamic_Rage_Boy_____/5-713682/ |access-date=2024-11-16 |website=www.ar15.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=French |first=Patrick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bf48JIIoLVoC&q=Nail&pg=PA4 |title=India: A Portrait |date=2011-01-27 |publisher=Penguin Books Limited |isbn=978-0-14-194700-6 |language=en}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2012-04-12 |title=The surprising truth about Rage Boy, America's hated poster-boy of Islamic radicalism|first=Patrick|last=French|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/the-surprising-truth-about-rage-boy-americas-hated-posterboy-of-islamic-radicalism-6637126.html |access-date=2024-12-24 |newspaper=The Standard |language=en}}</ref> 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.<ref name="autogenerated12">{{cite news |last=Rajghatta |first=Chidanand |date=1 Jul 2007 |title=Kashmir's 'Rage Boy' invites humour, mirth |url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Kashmirs_Rage_Boy_invites_humour/articleshow/2164387.cms |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071028031439/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Kashmirs_Rage_Boy_invites_humour/articleshow/2164387.cms |archive-date=28 October 2007 |access-date=6 November 2010 |work=Indiatimes}}</ref>
Speaking to The Guardian about his photograph becoming viral on the internet, he said:
{{Quote box | quote = I am not happy with people joking about me or making me into a cartoon, but I have more important things to think about. My protests are for those Muslims who cannot go out onto the streets to cry out against injustice. This is my duty and I believe Allah has decided this for me.<ref name=Butt2007/> }}
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.<ref name="FPK20212" /> He married in 2020.<ref name="FPK20212" />
== In popular culture == He was featured in numerous blogs and articles by Christopher Hitchens,<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.slate.com/id/2169020/|title=Let's stop channeling angry Muslims|author=Christopher Hitchens|journal=Slate Magazine|date=25 June 2007|access-date=17 April 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110918091327/http://www.slate.com/id/2169020/|archive-date=18 September 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> Kathleen Parker,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/06/rage_boy_vs_civilization.html|title=Rage Boy vs. Civilization|last=Parker|first=Kathleen|date=29 June 2007|work=RealClearPolitics|access-date=6 November 2010|location=Washington|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101126220633/http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/06/rage_boy_vs_civilization.html|archive-date=26 November 2010|url-status=live}}</ref> Michelle Malkin,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://michellemalkin.com/2007/06/29/laughing-at-islamic-rage-boy/|title=Laughing at Islamic Rage Boy|last=Malkin|first=Michelle|date=29 June 2007|work=michellemalkin.com|access-date=6 November 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101120021757/http://michellemalkin.com/2007/06/29/laughing-at-islamic-rage-boy/|archive-date=20 November 2010|url-status=live}}</ref> and others. On various blogs, he was photoshopped as Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler or as an opera singer.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.snappedshot.com/archives/976-Islamic-Rage-Boy-Parody-Roundup.html|title=Islamic Rage Boy Parody Roundup|last=Ledbetter|first=Brian C.|date=22 June 2007|work=Snapped Shot|access-date=6 November 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101221144549/http://snappedshot.com/archives/976-Islamic-Rage-Boy-Parody-Roundup.html|archive-date=21 December 2010|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://arewelumberjacks.blogspot.com/2007/06/rage-boy.html|title=Rage Boy|author=lumberjack|date=29 June 2007|work=Are We Lumberjacks?|publisher=Blogger|access-date=6 November 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708023655/http://arewelumberjacks.blogspot.com/2007/06/rage-boy.html|archive-date=8 July 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> His picture has also been printed on T-shirts, posters, mouse pads, and beer mugs.<ref name=autogenerated1/>
==See also== *Islam *List of Internet phenomena
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{notelist}} {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://archive.today/20130415215820/http://news.sawf.org/Lifestyle/39550.aspx Muslim 'Rage Boy' says he's really angry]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhat, Shakeel Ahmad}} Category:Internet memes introduced from India Category:Kashmiri people Category:Living people Category:Activists from Jammu and Kashmir Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Kashmiri Muslims Category:Kashmir separatist movement Category:People from Srinagar Category:Kashmiri militants Category:Indian torture victims Category:Internet memes introduced in 2007