Shakeel Ahmad Bhat


Shakeel Ahmad Bhat is a Kashmiri activist. He has been in photographs on the front pages of many newspapers and has become a cult figure on the Internet. He has been featured in newspapers such as the Times of India, Middle East Times, France 24, and The Sunday Mail He has been nicknamed Islamic Rage Boy by several bloggers.

Biography

He was born into a Sufi family in Jammu and Kashmir, India. He claims that, around 1990, during a raid on his home, Indian police allegedly threw his sister Shareefa out of an upstairs window; she apparently broke her spine and succumbed to death four years later.
He lives in Kashmir, India, where he is often seen participating in demonstrations. Due to his angry look, he is often photographed by journalists. He took part in protests against the Indian Army, Israel, Pope Benedict, Salman Rushdie, and the Muhammed cartoons. He was captured and spent three years in prison. He claims that he has been detained almost 300 times since 1997.

As icon

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