Professional Protester "Rage Boy": "I Am Really Angry!"

Shakeel Bhat (right) protesting against Pope Benedict XVI in Srinagar. Bhat has become the face of Muslim fury: an angry young man whose bushy beard and fiery-eyed scowl take centre stage at nearly every pro-Islamic demonstration in Indian Kashmir.(AFP/File/Sajjad Hussain)

I could have guessed you were filled with anger...

"Rage Boy", the muslim who spends days away from home, being locked up in prisons:

He has become the face of Muslim fury: an angry young man whose bushy beard and fiery-eyed scowl take centre stage at nearly every pro-Islamic demonstration in Indian Kashmir.

Shakeel Bhat, 31, has been displaying his teeth and shaking his fist over anything from Salman Rushdie's knighthood to Danish cartoons, becoming a photographers' favourite and earning himself the nickname "Rage Boy" in online columns and blogs.

One American columnist has dismissed him as a "professional Muslim protester," while other bloggers have also held him up for ridicule as a person who appears to be very easily enraged about anything.

...

The photos show the anger inside," said the full-time demonstrator, who when off the street looks distincly modest and a little shy.

Bhat has been detained more than 300 times since he first took to the streets of Srinagar in late 1997.

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Apart from drawing ridicule from bloggers, Bhat has even inspired one American neoconservative website to push "Rage Boy" merchandise -- including T-shirts, beer mugs, mouse pads.

"I don't believe this! I have no knowledge about all this. Why do they do it?" demanded Bhat, who says he has no idea how to use a computer and the Internet.

The Koran is his driving force, he says. I could've guessed that too.

You can see all of his work here.

Rage Boy parody round up.

Christopher Hitchens: It's impossible to satisfy "Rage Boy" and his ilk. It's stupid to try.

Update: Eye On The World has dedicated this video clip to him:



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