Googling Shahid Bolsen
Anyone who has followed my work for any length of time will already be aware of this; but I know I am new to many of you, and you will undoubtedly be somewhat shocked if you happen to google my name. Back when I actively wrote about the anti-Coup opposition movement in Egypt, I became a target of some unfair and sensationalistic reports in the media, basically accusing me of inciting violence. These types of stories appeared in both the mainstream media as well as in more radical fringe, right wing, Islamaphobic outlets — particularly those associated with career Muslim-hater Daniel Pipes.
Now, I was an easy target for all this because I had a manslaughter case in the UAE, which, at the time, had also been highly sensationalized in the UAE press. They tried to turn an accidental death into a terrorism story, despite the fact that I was never charged with anything remotely related to terrorism or religious extremism, and the fact that I was ultimately ordered to pay diya and released.
Now, for the record, my writing on Egypt was almost exclusively posted on Facebook between 2013 and 2016 or so, and I eventually left the platform in 2020; I have nearly 4,000 pages worth of writing during that time, and I defy anyone to locate a single instance in which I ever called for, advocated, or approved of violence. My whole effort regarding Egypt was specifically devoted to trying to ensure that the anti-Coup opposition did NOT become an armed struggle, and so that Egypt would not become another Syria. Here are some examples of what I actually said:
I am actually quite proud of the work I did regarding Egypt, and I find it ironic that many of the tactics I advocated were later echoed by the Black Lives Matter Movement a few years later, and some of the people who advocated those positions were actually highly celebrated. In fact, BLM engaged in far more radical tactics than anything I ever called for.
Over the years, al-Hamdulillah, the negative hype has died down. But my name was again dragged through the mud more recently by a magazine called Weekly Blitz, where they outright call me both a member of Al-Qaeda and somehow also a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, and claim that I was arrested by the FBI at some point, or possibly arrested in Egypt, or something like that. This is flat out slander and defamation. I have never been arrested by the FBI, I was never even IN Egypt, I have received death threats from both Al-Qaeda and ISIS, and the Muslim Brotherhood hates me.
This piece is part of a campaign by the Weekly Blitz to discredit the work of a brilliant organisation I am associated with called Detained in Dubai, which works to support people wrongly accused and unjustly imprisoned in the UAE. We were involved in publicizing the case of Princess Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid, the daughter of the Ruler of Dubai who escaped the UAE in 2018 and was captured at sea in an illegal raid on a US-registered vessel in international waters. As a result of our campaign Detained in Dubai was subjected to numerous hacking attempts, threats, and intimidation, as well as to black PR projects like the one in the Weekly Blitz.
The man behind the Weekly Blitz is not really in a position to level accusations or cast aspersions on anyone, being himself a convicted criminal, accused of being an agent for Israel, and having been charged with blasphemy.
Which then brings us to Daniel Pipes.
What can one say about Daniel Pipes? He looks like a twisted version of Frank Zappa from some dark, alternate universe. Well, to begin with, he was cited as an inspiration for Anders Brevik in the manifesto Brevik wrote justifying his mass murder in Norway — so, I guess, according to Pipes’ own logic, that would make him morally, if not legally responsible for the killings of 77 people in 2011. So, yes, Pipes incites terrorism against Muslims — any Muslims — as he has spent his entire career declaring that all Muslims pose a threat to peace and security, and that they have to be subjected to war, loss, and despair, until their spirits are crushed. So, it is a little bit un-self-aware of him to hold me responsible for the attack on KFC in Egypt based on my calls for nonviolent disruption of businesses in support of a restoration of democracy after the military coup of El-Sisi, while he himself inspired the worst mass murder in the history of Norway — according to the killer’s own manifesto. Pipes is a radical right-wing extremist, whose writing and views, it is safe to surmise, have influenced and motivated neo-Nazi and anti-Muslim terrorist attacks across Europe, New Zealand, and the United States. Indeed, while the manifestos of Brenton Tarrant and Payton Gendron may not mention Pipes by name, they clearly reflect the impact of his decades of vicious Islamaphobia, conspiracy theories, and demented fear-mongering. So, you can add another 61 deaths for which Pipes is intellectually responsible — according to his own logic. We won’t even count all the combined deaths of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the deaths in Gaza, or the drone strikes and assassinations in Yemen and Pakistan, both because they are too many to count, and because the ideological justifications for these murders were more of a group effort — but he certainly has a significant share of moral culpability.
But of course, he is a non-Muslim talking about Muslims, so he will not be held accountable for inciting violence. A Muslim, however, who talks about non-violent methods of confrontational protest against corporate domination, will be called a terrorist.
If you look at my actual writing, what I actually say; you will see that I have never advocated violence, never called for violence, and I have never endorsed or approved of it. I have warned specifically, explicitly, and repeatedly, against the use of violence.
But the problem is, I was speaking against the power structure. I was advocating a strategy that might have been successful. So, my character has to be assassinated, and I have to be maligned in the press.
Everyone has to decide for themselves, and of course, I am fully aware of what has been said about me in the media. It hasn’t made my life particularly easy, to be honest. You can decide as you like. You base your judgment based upon what you read about me, what has been said about me, or upon what I say myself.
