Poster Child

Meet Islamic Rage Boy, the bug-eyed protestor whose frenzied face has been appropriated for posters, Web sites, book covers and even coffee mugs as the symbol of implacable hatred for all things Western and civilized. The Daily Mail sent a reporter to Kashmir to meet with the  man who has become the face of extremist Islam, Shakeel Ahmad Bhat, and learn a thing or two:

Shakeel is a one-off, an eccentric, but he may be more representative of Muslim anger around the world than we like to admit, whether in Ramallah, Srinagar or Chechnya.

He doesn’t understand us, and we don’t understand him. Our assumption that any form of unrest or protest by Muslims must be connected to the Al Qaeda cause is plainly wrong.

In fact, Osama Bin Laden has hijacked Islam from the vast majority of the world’s Muslims.

Shakeel Ahmad Bhat is the product of poverty, lack of opportunity and state brutality. Islam is to him a way of life. He is illiterate and his only source of news is the street . . .