Shahid Mahmood is a Canadian architect and cartoonist of Pakistani descent.
Shahid was born in Toronto, Canada [1] and spent his childhood and teenage years in Pakistan, [2] attending schools in Lahore and Karachi. Early in his career, he drew political cartoons for the Pakistani publications Star, Dawn and Newsline Magazine. After graduation he studied architecture in Canada, [3] attending both Carleton and McGill University (Master of Architecture, McGill University; Bachelor of Architecture, Carleton University). Shahid’s cartoons focus largely on religion and politics, with his critiques targeting both Islamic fundamentalism and the aggressiveness of US foreign policy. [4] Over the years, he has received threats to his well-being from groups ranging from the Taliban to various government officials. [5]
His cartoons were a part of the exhibition showing at the 1997 APEC Conference. [6] Following the 9/11 Attacks, Shahid exhibited work at the Paris exhibition The New World Order. [4] In 2002 his exhibition Enduring Operation Freedom, criticizing the Bush policies in Afghanistan, resulted in the McMaster Museum of Art in Canada shutting down the event. [3] [7] While working in Pakistan, Shahid faced repeated attempts at censorship by the government of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, [8] who was featured in several of Shahid’s works. [7] His cartoons have been preserved in various institutions including the Museum of Contemporary History in Paris. [6] He has published his work in publications including The Huffington Post, The Guardian, The Express Tribune, Courrier International, and The New York Times Press Syndicate. [3] Shahid has commented on the Charlie Hebdo aftermath. [9] [10] [11] [4] [12]
Shahid is mentioned as being one of the first Canadians to be flagged on the US No Fly List. [13] The Canadian Parliament debated his story, [14] and in an open letter released by Amnesty International December 2007 Shahid’s case was cited as a prime reason to implement the recommendations [15] made by the Arar Commission that advocate for balanced and transparent security measures in Canada. [16] Shahid claims that his criticisms of US foreign policy and military interventionism resulted in him being denied boarding to a domestic Air Canada flight [4] in 2004. Following this, he began to receive extra screening on a routine basis by airlines in many countries. [17] In 2009 a racial profiling complaint regarding the incident was argued in front of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. [18] In 2010 Shahid settled the case with Air Canada. [1] The short documentary, “Listed” narrates some of the details of this incident. [19] In 2012 Shahid was again detained in the Santiago International Airport and interviewed by Interpol for 90 minutes, indicating he was still on a US government security list. [2] He was later assigned a specialized PIN from US Homeland Security to help deal with the appearance of his name on security lists. [20] Shahid has also received threats from Islamic fundamentalists for his works criticizing fundamentalism, [3] including an image of the Taliban depicted as an ape reading an upside-down Qur’an. [2] He has written and spoken [21] over the years on issues related to satire and censorship in newsprint, radio, and television. [20] [22] [23] [24] [25]
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