This Internet phenomenon started with the release of a video clip online to the World of Warcraft forums. The video was released by the World of Warcraft Alliance player guild "Pals for Life" on the Laughing Skull PvP realm. It features a group of players discussing a detailed battle strategy for an area known as the Blackrock Spire while one of their number, Leeroy, is away from his computer. Their plan is ruined when Leeroy returns and, ignorant of the strategy, immediately charges headlong into battle shouting a prolonged cry of his own name. His subsequent actions ruin the meticulous plan and the encounter ends in disaster for the group.

An article in the August 2005 issue of PC Gamer UK, entitled "The Ballad of Leeroy Jenkins", claims that the original video was designed as a negative commentary on the kind of "nerd-guilds" that meticulously and statistically plan out raids with all the seriousness of an actual combat strategy the way Leeroy's guild was apparently doing. Leeroy is in fact the hero of the piece, acting against the geekiness of his guild.^[1]

Shakeel Ahmad Bhat^[1] (born around 1978^[2]), labeled as Islamic Rage Boy by Western media, is a Kashmiri Muslim activist who has been on photographs on the frontpages of many newspapers and has become a cult figure on the Internet. He has been featured in newspapers such as Agence France-Presse,^[3] the Times of India,^[4] Middle East Times,^[5] France 24.^[6] and Sunday Mail^[2]

He was born into Sufi family in Kashmir^[2]. At the age of ten he became a school dropout because he had problems learning to read and write^[2]. Around 1990, during a raid on Shakeel's home, Indian police threw his sister Shareefa out of an upstairs window; she broke her spine and died from her injuries four years later.^[2]

At the age of 13 he joined pro-Pakistan rebel group and was a militant from 1991 to 1994.^[3] He claims he was not a good militant and has never killed anybody.^[2]

He lives in Kashmir, where he is often participating in Muslim protests. 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.^[7] After dropping out of school, he became a militant fighting against Indian forces in Kashmir. He was captured and spent three years in prison.^[3] He claims that he has been detained almost 300 times since 1997.^[3]

The term "Islamic Rage Boy" was first used in September of 2006. Using Bhat as inspiration, The Nose On Your Face created an illustrated, prototypical Islamic Rage Boy who has sung in satirical videos, offered guidance to other Muslims via an advice column, and dispensed an exaggerated, extremist form of Islamic justice where ever he goes.

Bhat, and Islamic Rage Boy, were discussed by members of The Nose On Your Face on the BBC several times in July of 2007.

He was featured in numerous blogs and articles by Christopher Hitchens,^[8] Robert Spencer,^[9] Kathleen Parker,^[10] Michelle Malkin,^[11] and others. On various blogs, he was photoshopped as Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler or as an opera singer,^[12][13]. His picture has also been printed on T-Shirts, posters, mouse-pads and beer mugs.^[3][14]

When he was shown a photoshopped image that appeared in the internet, of his face superimposed on a pig, he reacted: "I surely get hurt when I see these pictures. This is terrorism for me. The people who do this are showing their own culture, so why do they tell us that we are uncivilised?"^[2]

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