Samad Khurram, an active member of SAC and an undergrad at Harvard Business School refuses an award from the US Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne Patterson in protest of US policies regarding the support of an illegal President Musharraf and the Mehmand Agency attack.
As the video shows that Samad Khurram is called on stage to receive the award and simply walks past the US Ambassador in defiance and to the podium where in his 30 second speech, he simply hits out on the American Government for supporting this illegal military ruler and severely condemns the recent American attack within the borders of Pakistan. It reminds me of the photograph from China when a lone man stood in front of a tank. The United States is also a similar juggernaut all muscles and no brains. They are not used to seeing people who can stand up with dignity and protest boldly and publicly.
What really make us proud that our leaders stumble over their feet trying to please the American leaders and an unknown student has the courage to defy this hegemony and chooses to stand up for his country
I personally had a telephonic discussion with him barely and hour before when he was going to the event – at that time he mentioned that ‘someone’ might not be ready to take the award and he is going to the event to support him, little did I know that the ‘someone’ was he himself. Bravo Samad you make us proud
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5Ccbfo2p4I
Video uploaded by Jaaf – Thanks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5xigXSluLoONLINENEWS: A Pakistani student, Samad Khurram vociferously refused his Harvard University scholarship award presented to him by the American Ambassador Anne W. Patterson, which simply awed her into a terrible confusion. The said student refused the award, which was presented in an event held by a private collage at the National Art Gallery, as a protest against the recently carried out American attacks on Mehmand Agency. The American Ambassador greatly regretted these attacks, terming them as a “terrible misunderstanding”, and stoutly refuted the notion that the student was refusing the award, maintaining that currently there were 5400 Pakistani students studying in America. The entire hall resounded with thunderous clapping for the student, who was later on restricted by management to talk to any media member.
Comments
74 responses to “Student refuses award from US Ambassador”
Kudos!!!
mashAllah good samad…we are proud of u man.:)…
u did a nice job..may Allah protect u frem each nd every evil..and u succedd in life….thts the spirit..man..:)..
Nice work…inshAllah u will be so high in life i m sure..:)..Best of luck and applaudz fer ya..=)
salute to you man..best way to record the protest>>>whole nation is proud of you:)
good. at least he has the balls to stand up to someone. wish our leaders would learn from him?
Kewl.
well done man. we all r proud of u,, every student try to do such peacefull protest
ALLAH bless u
well done!!!
That is the reason many of us believe on Pakistan and believe in change, we are not looking for a “Bloodbath” but change of mind and we will see more to come.
Althought we are an emotional nation and jump to conclusions to fast on incidents which are not according to our wishes.
The present movement was started by Lawyers and later on supported by civil society and media.
Samad Khuram has shown that we are a different Pakistan today. I am proud of him.
Do you still think our movement has failed or was fruitless?
well done sammad!
well done samad, its a good way 2 record our protest.we (SAC) proud of u.
Mashallah, Subhanallah !!!
Hang Musharraf, Shoot Down American Drones, and Kick out CIA, FBI out of Pakistani Soil.
Bravo! A true reprsentative of majority of the youth , i would say. Very motivating for the rest!
Well done, Samad. We are very proud of you. It is never easy to take a stand especially when it involves personal sacrifice. So, well done again. Hope to see more of you on the web and one day hopefully on the national political scene.
We need more people like you – people with principles – not NRO’ed “leaders” that inherit supposedly “democratic” political parties.
The time to hang the dictator is close.
May Allah bless you always……we need leaders like you….I hope one day you can be a leader of Pakistan, ameen
What is the use ?
@Obi Wan Kenobi….use is that patriotic people like him can shove up ur fuking ass!
Great…
Mr. Obi Wan Kenobi, the is this to show the american that people dont love your policies, and some peole have the courage to show the difference and show the hate they have with american policies.
Well done samad may ALLAH bless u and give u the courage and honor to do more AMEEN
back in 2004 i know a guy Atif majeed from CASE who refused to take his degree from musharraf i dont know why didn;t media covered him any way a job weldone sammad
we feel proud for the way peacefully you stood for the entire nation….Bravo!
three cheers for Samad
Hip Hip
Hurray!!!
Bravo man,bravo!!
Malik sb
You wrote in a comment about a kid who refused to take the degree from Musharraf would you have any details to that extent on who it was and when – in 2004 Musharraf was not an open target so it may have gone in noticed –
Let’s give credit where its due even if its four years down the road
Thanks
This nothing less than gaining political mileage. If he really wants to protest why don’t he return to Pakistan and study here. It seems senseless to criticize USA, refuse to accept the scholarship and then go on to study from the same country.
Well done dude !
All hats off to you, hope our a** licking politians can learn a lesson from this act.
While it does take a lot of courage even to do something like this, equating it to Tiananmen square protest is quite an exaggeration.
@Zack – LOL at the Tiananmen square comment – I might agree
But it required guts – which most of us could never do – he has lead by example – it will make a difference
Rehman Malik openly denies that america dint hit and killed pakistan soldiers …WTF!!!!!
Hats off to you Samad.. Proud of you:-)
Say no to Musharaf
Say no to illegal attacks by american’s on pakistan land
Restor Pre 3rd november judiciary
I think our politicians should watch this video every morning they get up and learn a lesson.
MashAllah weldone samad, we are proud of u.
Mr. Khuram has shown that we are living in a different Pakistan. today.
That is the reason many of us believe on Pakistan and believe in change, we are not looking for a “Bloodbath” but change of mind and we will see more to come.
I am proud of him.
Well done.
Great work! Finally something for me to take my mind off all the selfish acts going on lately by our politicians!
Mashallah
we are proud of you Samad. you have done a great job.
May GOB bless you.
some brave people like samad keeps the country alive
Dear Samad,
Thankyou for taking such a brave initiative. We are all proud of you and I hope and pray that all Pakistanis become at least as brave as you are.
He really deserves sitara jurat as he is unique breed in my educated class.My heart is now filled with proud that we still have live minds who can practically proof their strength in one of finest civilised way.
Big cheers for our new hero.
YOU HAVE MADE US PROUD. US SHOULD FEEL SHAME FOR ITS DUOBLE STANDARD OF DEMOCRACY. ON ONE SIDE AMRCA SUPPORTS DEMOCRACY AND TALKS A LOT ABOUT ITS DEMOCRACY AND ON OTHER SIDE AMRCA IS SUPPORTING MUSHARAFF WHO IS MOST !!!!!!!!! PERSON IN PAKISTAN. ALSO AMERCIA SHOULD FORGET OF ATTACKING PAKISTAN. WE ARE NOT AFGHNISTAN OR IRAQ. THIS TIME USA WILL GET A REAL LESSON. INSHAALLAH
WE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE AMERICA & MUSHARAFF. FOR GOD SAKE LEAVE US. WE CAN MANAGE WELL WITHOUT YOU MUSHY.
We love and appreciate your stance you bravest heart. if every Pakistani (especialy our Leaders) act like this no dictator can think of “TAKING OVER” in future. You have made us proud. We love You.
And for Amercians please do atleast any single good thing for which generations to come will remember you.
Musharraf Zindabad.
There lies the paradox…
I am fascinated by this chorus of thumbs up on the gesture of defiance and protest of this young man while the irony of the situation is completely ignored. The privilege of being educated in countries like USA is an ultimate wish and desire of majority of young people who want access to higher education. For USA it serves well also because they get tomorrow’s Zalmai Khalilzad and Shaukat Aziz from this pool. But fundamental unasked and unanswered question is why it is such a great thing to be educated outside Pakistan? Why is it that every body wants to find a job outside Pakistan? Why is it that given half a chance people wants to live some where else than Pakistan? How come nobody, in politics or otherwise can state that to gain true independence, respect and dignity nations must stand on their own feet and end beggary to survive.
Aid, aid, aid…handouts, that’s all we are always waiting for, and when we are treated with contempt, SURPRIZE!!!
Our economic and political weakness has only increased every year, our dependence on IMF and World Bank has only increased every year. Besides nuclear technology, there is nothing noteworthy the leadership of this country has given to the country.
So I submit, while I applaud this young man’s gesture whole heartedly because it does take guts to do what he did and obviously his heart is at the right place, it is not USA that takes liberties with us, it is us who have ALLOWED USA to treat us the way they do, let’s ask WHY and HOW?
civilized and brave way to registered protest. Something which Pakistani govt should learn. Those who are criticizing sArmad are those who themselves have no courage to call spade a spade.
This is the right way of protest.. may Allah Give our all people this type of sense so that they can not distroy their own home, village, city, country ,,, Good Samad you are an example of our upcomming nation ,,,
My company will be honoured to extend a scholarship for Sarmad to continue his education and finance it completely where he chooses, some one please convay him and tell him to to contact me.
He make a right decison and he is future of Pakistan, we can not afford to loose such people who believe in truth and Pakistan.
If Sarmad needs any finacial support or anything to support his thinking, I humbly offer him and would like to see him to shine in future as a bright star for our comming generation.
Sarmad, no worries, just send me your contacts, what I can not do, you have done that, and I see you as my future, I am there to support you for my dreams.
Long live Sarmad, Long Live Pakistan.
Most probably he is getting funds from some resource in US, be his professor or his dept or from any one for this matter. What is the big issue if he does not accept some award , it is not like he refused green card or scholarship at Harvard. I can refuse 100s of such stupid rewards, no biggie, just a political mileage and good thing to put in his resume as Pakistanis are the most sentimental nation in the world so I am sure he could cash it and if he is good in delivering his speeches than may b he would get some political party ticket in next election. Faggot. These stupid rewards means nothing unless there is some big cash or scholarship with it. And I believe he did not refuse award, he refused to accept it from the hand of ambassador.
Stupid nation.
TM thanks for the video credit
Let me clarify one thing – After I did some investigation around – Samad’s non-acceptance of the certificate does not mean his Harvard Scholarship was canceled – the Harvard Scholarship has nothing to do with the appreciation certificate that was been given to him by the ROOTS school for his distinction in A levels and what not – it was simply an appreciation certificate. This is my understanding, last when I talked to Samad. The media / a few sources (even the Onlinenews source cited in this blog post) may have misconceived it as such. So its not hopefully that but we must appreciate his stand – which was a strong way to lodge your own protest
dear sarmad
u have made us proud
brave act
may u succeed in life
take care
i have invited atif majeed to tell his story in his own words hope he writes soon
Allhumdu-lillah-o- Wallaho Akbar!
Well done proud son of Pakistan, to show courage and authority.
All the big soft generals of army and lackeys of the west corrupt politicians learn a lesson from this young man
Samad Khurram.
May Allah bless all those who highlighted this major story and commented positively.
Good work. But he is young & jazbati. He was just a kid in the 90’s so he does not know how badly BB & Sharif fucked up our country & how much relieved everyone was when the army took over.
Everything is not as Black & White as some in the media want us to believe. Democracy is better than dictatorship but that does not mean by any stretch that BB & Sharif have better record in power than Musharraf. To the contrary.
Few things..
Totally understand his rage against the US Government. But, what has he done against his own government. The US doesn’t choose Pakistani dictatorships, Pakistanis do. By disrespecting a foreign officer, he has achieved what? Are Pakistani morals that low that we appreciate someone for insulting? It’s not only unethical but unacceptable in any religion.
Attending Harvard, he should have known better that which school creates the most US policy makers especially foreign; so why not abandon Harvard? Why does Pakistanis forget that US Government does what’s best for them and not what’s best for Pakistan and its Pakistani Government’s job to determine what’s best for the country.
It’s just a random youtube moment for hype. It’s been over done in US for legitimate reasons but a new one stunt for Pakistanis.