Shahid Mahmood (artist)

Shahid Mahmood is a Canadian architect and cartoonist of Pakistani descent.

Early life

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. 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]

Career

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.^[7][8] While working in Pakistan, Shahid faced repeated attempts at censorship by the government of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto,^[9] who was featured in several of Shahid’s works.^[8] 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.^[10] Shahid has commented on both the Jyllands-Posten cartoon controversy^[11] and the related Charlie Hebdo aftermath.^{[12][13][14][4][15]}

Censorship

Shahid is mentioned as being one of the first Canadians to be flagged on the US No Fly List.^[16] The Canadian Parliament debated his story,^[17] and in an open letter released by Amnesty International December 2007 Shahid’s case was cited as a prime reason to implement the recommendations^[18] made by the Arar Commission that advocate for balanced and transparent security measures in Canada.^[19] 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.^[20] In 2009 a racial profiling complaint regarding the incident was argued in front of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.^[21] In 2010 Shahid settled the case with Air Canada.^[22] The short documentary, “Listed” narrates some of the details of this incident.^[23] 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.^[24] He was later assigned a specialized PIN from US Homeland Security to help deal with the appearance of his name on security lists.^[25] Shahid has also received threats from Islamic fundamentalists for his works criticizing fundamentalism,^[26] including an image of the Taliban depicted as an ape reading an upside-down Qur’an.^[27] He has written and spoken^[28] over the years on issues related to satire and censorship in newsprint, radio, and television.^{[25][29][30][31][32]}

References