The Keselyn-Nieupourt Jihad

The Keselyn-Nieupourt Jihad, also called the Keselyn-Nieupourt Struggle, was an effort led by several dozen people from the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community to use the internet as a means to gain attention and public recognition for the enthnonym and self-identifying endonym "Qarsherskiyan".

It began in 2019 when a prominent member of the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community, who had converted to Islam adopted the name Shaykh Abdul Samad Whitelow, began inspiring his 17 students to make efforts to save the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan cultural identity marker. He spoke the following speech:

"Oh my people, back in August of 1996 I wrote the journal, the notebook on why Islam is the best solution to the racial discrimination, tensions, and injustice here in [the United States of] America. It was my belief, much like that of the honorable and benevolent Malcolm X, may Allah have mercy upon him, that Islam is the true religion and the ultimate destructive force against the White supremacist global hegemony. Our forefathers laid the grounds for Christians and Muslims like us in the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community to find peace, beauty, and acceptance in and of the immense diversity found within the human race. We see the differences, and embrace them with awe and wonder, rather than look for false confirmations to preconceived notions of ethnic or racial superiority. Today, only about thirty people have chosen to self-identify as being Ethnic Qarsherskiyan. This is a term which has been created by my father and his friends back in 1991 as part of an insider group reference, it was a term defining an existing heritage which remains still unnamed and unrecognized, those whom have descended from early American multigenerationally mixed race families and from Tidewater Creole descendants in Atlantic Canada and the Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and Midwestern regions of the United States [of America].

"It is in the best of our interest as a people that we adopt this term Qarsherskiyan, for it describes all descendants of Tri-Racial Isolate-like ancestry or French and Anglo North American regional area Atlantic Creole descendants. The term Qarsherskiyan doesn't discriminate! How many of you here have been made to feel less than accepted in the Black community because you are very lightskin and 'don't look Black'? How many of you here experience racism from White America due to your looks, but aren't considered Black because they say you don't look 'Black enough'? Well, the term Qarsherskiyan is for all descendants. We don't push nobody out because they look White, look Black, look Native American, or look Jewish. We accept all of those who have descended from our community. I've studied the mysterious Melungeon community of Appalachia, whose exact ancestry is a raging debate and has yet to be agreed upon by everyone. There are dozens of these communities called Tri-Racial Isolates, because it was widely believed they was a mix of Black, White, and Native American. Doesn't that sound like our families we have here? Why don't we get a name to define our heritage like Melungeons or Lumbees or Redbones? Well, now we do have a term for our own people. Any descendant of this type of mixed race heritage who hasn't been claimed as Melungeon or Lumbee, whose ancestors aren't part of any known and named community, but who knew of their mixed heritage and always desired a space to fit in, such people are most welcome to call themselves Qarsherskiyan and find at seat at our table. Our people must take to the internet and begin a campaign of using the term Qarsherskiyan openly and proudly. By 2020, it must no longer be an obscure term used by a few friends, but a household name proudly used in public, which will have information available on it online. Qarsherskiyan is going public on the internet!"

With the conclusion of Sheikh Abdul Samad Whitelow, around two dozen Muslims and half a dozen Christians from the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community began a campaign, partnering with a few dozen other people of all faiths from the community, putting aside their differences to begin an age of unity and proudly expressing a once supressed blended identity which now had a name for the public to know it by, giving people a sense of belonging and helping seal the cracks and wounds of colorism, which had divided the Qarsherskiyan between White-passing people and those who are labelled as Black American do to their appearance. Over generations, a few of the White-passing families began to believe they were White and not mixed race, and some of these people held "a chip on their shoulder" and prejudiced beliefs which were unkind and unfair to the dark-skinned Qarsherskiyans. White supremacy and colorism once reared it's ugly head, but now the Qarsherskiyan people were prepared to put an end to the division and proudly boast mixed heritage, not ashamed and hiding nothing from the world.

Part 1 of 7, the storytellers.
Around 2 dozen young people, mostly youth, began crafting stories and narratives which were fictional yet based on real events and happenings in the world around them, with the goal of entertainment and moral lessons. A young woman known as Monique Saba Osman said:
"This is not good, y'all! When stories are made up, even with good intentions, it has immense potential to negatively backfire. Making up stories about real families and places can reduce the credibility of real lived experiences of these people and their oral family histories. Since many of these families have limited paper documentation and have historically relied upon oral history to explain things about their origins, it is disrespectful to make stories about these families."
The solution was a series of fictional island nations being used to represent Eastern North America. Each of these fictional island nations had varying topography and a wide range of elevations, allowing for a vast amount of different climates from humid tropical rainforest to arid hot desert and snowy mountain peaks at higher elevations which get significantly colder than the coastal lowlands below. Using the terrain's rain shadow effect and the cooler temperatures at higher elevations, the fantasy island nations created copied the biogeography of Hawaii and the Azores to achieve the maximum amount of different climates crammed onto a small area of land, enabling the fictional island nations to feature different locations with different climates, with each fictional city or town representing a real settlement in Eastern North America. Different mixed-origin blended ethnic groups in these fictional island nations correlated to different real world families that were part of the real community behind the story telling. Controversial politicians were represented by dictatorships in the stories. Real world events and happenings were woven into the fantasy series. Many of these islands have been created and much of their lore has been posted to the internet by the young adults and teenagers working on the storytelling projects for the youth of the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community. Among these fictional islands used as settings for telling tales based on true stories, there was Aleialei Atoll, Bahariterra, Lucaya Grande, the Gaviota Islands, and the Virginya Islands. The two most famous fantasy islands from the storytelling series were probably the Virginya Islands, located due East of the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay across the warm Gulf Stream current from the mainland, having a USDA zone 9b climate on the coast but climates as cold as USDA zone 6 on the highest peaks; and Bahariterra, a fictional volcanic archipelago located due East of Bermuda on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, featuring 13,000 feet tall mountain summits and a range of climates from USDA zones 5a through 13b and the rain shadow effect in full swing. The Virginya Islands were known for their violent conflicts with pirates inspired by real pirates on the Virginia and Carolina Coast and Appalachian grifters throughout history. The Bahariterra Islands fantasy series was known for strong and resilient people overcoming violent dictatorships and international geopolitical events and having a deep and extensively developed lore with maps and videos of the real life locations that inspired Bahariterra being used as "videos of places in Bahariterra".

The storytellers had a golden era from late 2019 to late 2022, with the Bahariterra series becoming the source of dozens of inside jokes in the community, with many internet memes and stories created and attracted thousands of fans and enthusiasts from outsiders speculating on the motives and purpose of the Bahariterra Island Nation, which didn't actually exist on the world map. When it was revealed who was behind Bahariterra and the esoteric references (example, PecanVista Mountains is the Appalachian Mountains, Banda is Florida, Lake PecanVista is Newfoundland Fishing Villages, etc) were revealed, hundreds of supporters joined the cause. It was a successful attempt to garner attention for issues being faced by the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community, not naming real people and places and having no drama or gossip or potential for slander and bickering online. The ingenuity of the Bahariterra fantasy series and the amazing things it has caused for real world people cannot be denied, although the Bahariterra lore was eventually hijacked and devolved into trolling and a mockery of the worldbuilding project.

Part 2 of 7, the micronationalists
Another way many creative young people created publicity stunts to help garner attention for the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community was through micronations. A micronation is usually a publicity stunt or political statement, a creative way to experience with the concepts of sovereignty and self-determination. When the Bahariterra Series Merchandise sold out and the storyline finished, a small group of the two dozen content creators helping to flesh out the lore of Bahariterra began working on something more closer to home, taking a step out of the realm of storytelling and into reality. A group of young Ethnic Qarsherskiyan people proclaimed a series of micronations, complete with currency and political borders and full-fledged constitutions or books of rules and laws. Some of the more notable micronations include those made by devout Christians and Muslims who had a philosophy of social justice and equality that had originally motivated them to join the Keselyn-Nieupourt Struggle on religious grounds of the good cause being a good deed for the community which would help many people. The Sheikhdom of York followed by the Islamic Sultanate of Qarsherskiy are probably two of the most famous micronations made by Ethnic Qarsherskiyan youth as publicity stunts of political statements in support of their communities getting more public recognition and acknowledgement from local governments. Both of the two micronations were ruled by religious laws, a controversial move in a country like the USA meant to garner as much attention and generate as much debate and discussion as possible. The more controversial the micronations were, the more attention they'd draw, a clear path to gaining a platform, hopefully media attention, which would help the cause of making the term "Qarsherskiyan" a familiar term that the public could learn to pronounce and use and recognize more. The Sheikhdom of York focused on raising awareness about Islamophobia and incorporated elements of sarcastic humor into their micronation, with one of their self-made "newspapers" proclaiming, "Brown man hit with shopping cart said 'please leave me alone,' an inexcusable act of terrorism against this country."
The Islamic Sultanate of Qarsherskiy micronation focused more on making up lore that would generate controversy and cause arguments on the internet, then hijacking the argument comment threads and turning the attention onto the actual ethnic group the micronation was named after and the struggles they face. When a group of self-described "proud White supremacist neo-Nazis" began harassing Ethnic Qarsherskiyan kids in a park and lit fireworks to attack the Qarsherskiyan kids, the kids took the fireworks and turned them away from the park and the children playing and pointed them at the hate group, causing the bigots to retreat, fleeing and leaving the fireworks. Videos of the fireworks being shot from this event and later videos of "confiscated fireworks left behind" being fired into empty tunnels and fields for "training for self defense" were uploaded to the internet under the guise of there being a "Firework War" or "Battle using fireworks against neo-Nazis" occuring and still ongoing. The sensational captions and titles drove in thousands of internet viewers, with some supporting the act as a heroic act of bravery against an oppressive force, and others criticizing the actions as an illegal assault of civilians, all while the original context was absent. Police were called to investigate the incidents but only some of the neo-Nazis ended up being threatened with juvenile detention center for possessing vapes and giving them to 9 year olds. All local youth from the Qarsherskiyan community involved in the micronations were not found guilty of any wrongdoing, although police talked to some parents and fireworks were confiscated. The arguments in the comment sections of some of these videos drove views through the roof and brought much attention to the issue of neo-Nazis and racism being faced as well as publicity for the Qarsherskiyan community. By 2024, nearly all of the micronations ran by teens and young adults from the community were disbanded and ended operations and functions. The Islamic Sultanate of Qarsherskiy had used the actual flag of the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community, a controversial move that helped normalize the flag, which has Ajami Script that looks like Arabic and has often drawn suspicions from those ignorant or fearful of Arabic and the Muslim world. The normalization of the flag, with it's brightly colored Arabic-like calligraphy and sword, helped ensure it wasn't mistaken for the flag of an armed group or political group, and paved the way for it to be flown at schools and public offices in solidarity with the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community without public backlash from those who mistake the flag and it's meaning and what it represents.

Part 3 of 7, the straightforward approach
While many of the brilliant minds of the band of 30 and some odd Ethnic Qarsherskiyan teenagers and young adults working on the Keselyn-Nieupourt Struggle used stories and imagery to create narratives and explanatory scenes and teach lessons in the community and distance stories and political opinions of individuals from the community as a whole and real happenings, there were some brave souls who took the straightforward approach, just outright posting family trees and genealogical records and historical sources and documenting the cultural traditions and cuisine and history of the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community. Initially, these brave souls faced much criticism from people demanding sources and proof of a community whose name was relatively newer than the community the name describes, a term not yet recognized and accepted, not written about by many scholars, and a community not well-documented as a single and united group with a name. Conspiracy theories and harassment have pushed back against the mission of these individuals, and their ethnic identity was often attacked by the especially skeptical and the misinformed. A safe haven was found on YouTube, and in late 2019 the group begin documenting the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community and the history, cuisine, traditions, and origins of the Qarsherskiyan people on the internet, especially on YouTube, as a means of documenting and archiving factual information. This was the main part of the Keselyn-Nieupourt Struggle, yet it didn't exponentially pick up until the Summer of 2024, when enough YouTube videos had been made covering the community that accurate information reflecting the identity and general views of the community had been made available to the public on the web. This made it safe for more of the Qarsherskiyan Youth Leaders to document information elsewhere online more often, facing less misunderstandings and backlash for expressing their preferred endonym and being open and proud of their heritage. The Ethnic Qarsherskiyan Youth Leaders are people between the ages of 16 and 24 who organize protests and online events and attend camps and meetings along with parents and their kids to help foster a sense of community and document and archive information on the Qarsherskiyan community using the internet, making new memories together and helping bud support networks and spark new friendships within the community, as people from across North America travel from far away to attend meetings, meeting people from many different far flung cities and towns and sharing information and personal experiences. There are around 40 to 50 youth leaders and they all have their own different approaches. As the storytelling series began to wind down and the micronation publicity stunts grew old and no longer were sensational news and became normalized in the niche spaces which hosted the online information about them, more and more youth leaders joined the straightforward approach and amplified the movement to get recognition for the Qarsherskiyan people as a distinct community. The year of 2025 saw over two thousand ethnic Qarsherskiyan people across social media platforms and Internet forums documenting their knowledge on their communities and their cuisine and history and cultural traditions. This broke the record of over one thousand people in 2024 and over nine-hundred in 2023. The term
"Qarsherskiyan" was rapidly growing as a self-identifier descriptor for the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan heritage we all know of and recognize as being called Qarsherskiyan today. The start of 2026 saw organized groups of haters arise too though, using the internet to spread harmful stereotypes and misinformation about the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community and attempting to smear the endonym entirely and all people who proudly use it, falsely calling it "a made up identity" or a "fantasy ethnicity" in a failed attempt to spread confusion and erase the experiences and identity of the Qarsherskiyan people. But the Keselyn-Nieupourt Struggle had never been about seeking validation from outsiders. It had only been about recognition. The internet trolls attempted to dismiss the notion that the Qarsherskiyan people have a "valid" ethnicity and push strict binary racial categorizations of Black or White, but in their slander campaign they only garnered attention of more people who never heard the term before, many of whom grew curious and did research for themselves, and this has helped some descendants find and reconnect with the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community. The internet trolls tried to point to some of the micronations and stories created by Qarsherskiyan authors and artists as political statements, attempting to create confusion and conflate the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan identity with micronations and fictional stories loosely based off of the actual Ethnic Qarsherskiyan people. This only backfired in a positive way, however, creating new fans for the Qarsherskiyan authors and artists, enabling some to sell merchandise and increase their revenue, putting money forward for donations to people in need from the Qarsherskiyan community.

Part 4 of 7, the haters and the internet trolls
The Keselyn-Nieupourt Struggle is a struggle, and every struggle is a struggle because there are obstacles and challenges. One challenge faced by those who initiated the struggle and all those who participate in it is credibility. This problem has become less and less apparent as more and more information on the community is documented online and more information continuously becomes available. However, there are those who hate the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan people and are greatly displeased by their attempt to create a name for their mixed heritage identities that welcomes all descendants without judgement on how they look. The internet trolls went through 8 stages, each one more desperate than the last, as the group of faceless haters organized online to harass and bully many Qarsherskiyan people into submission, with the ultimate goal of forcing the Qarsherskiyan people to stop identifying as Ethnic Qarsherskiyan, and instead adopt offensive and outdated terms such as "Quadroon" or "Half-Breed" to describe themselves. This has generated extreme outrage from some Qarsherskiyan individuals, who experienced gaslighting and harassment and death threats for sharing their family history and publicly talking about crimes committed by the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups.
The first stage of the internet trolls was to claim that a mixed race ethnic group cannot exist and is invalid. They forced racial classification onto the Qarsherskiyan people. If a Qarsherskiyan woman had dark skin and coily type 3 hair and brown eyes, they would label her as Black. If a Qarsherskiyan man has pale skin and red hair and lots of freckles and green eyes, they would label him as White. If a Qarsherskiyan person had olive skin with yellow undertones and an afro or dirty blonde type 4 curly hair and blue eyes, they would label him as "Mulatto" although this term is controversial with some Qarsherskiyan people either preferring it or considering it to be a deeply offensive slur and entirely rejecting it's use and application for them and their family. When members of the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community consistently continued to identify as Ethnic Qarsherskiyan and refused to allow colorism to divide the community, the internet trolls moved on to another method.
The second stage the internet trolls used to attack the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community was microaggressions followed up by gaslighting. If a Qarsherskiyan person could pass as Black and lived the experience of a Black American man and was posting something on Reddit about being proud of his Black heritage with photos of them attached, an internet troll might say something like, "you've got good hair for a Black person, boy." This is a microaggression meant to imply that Black people often or usually don't have "good" hair and calling a man "boy" which is offensive and has often been done to upset Black men by White supremacists trying to minimize the notion of masculinity of Black men. If the Qarsherskiyan man gets upset over this racist microaggression disguised as a compliment and says something in retaliation, they get downvoted and accusing of "playing the victim card" and screenshots of their response are posted online without context, accusing them of being sensitive and delusional or suffering from paranoia and "seeing racism where it doesn't exist." This tactic of microaggressions followed by gaslighting was professionally employed by a handful of organized Internet trolls, each possessing dozens of alternative accounts pretending to be different people, a tactic not unheard of among both sides of the struggle. When this failed to stop the rapid growth of the utilization of the term "Qarsherskiyan" as a self-identifier carrying pride, the anti-Qarsherskiyan haters began another method.
The third stage the internet trolls used to attack the identity of the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan people was to downplay their heritage. If a Qarsherskiyan woman posts her DNA results to Instagram with the caption, "I am proudly descended from African, European, Jewish, and East Indian people who lived alongside one another in colonial America!" This would be a target. One of the internet trolls may post a comment claiming "Everyone in America is mixed race" which is a common false claim used to minimize the distinct identities of Qarsherskiyan communities. Many of the internet users who have pages dedicated to hating the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community post misinformation claiming most White Americans have Native American ancestry, which is absolutely not true by any means! The overwhelming vast majority of self-described White Americans have no Native American ancestry whatsoever. The average Black American may have some Native American ancestry, if so, it's around 2% on average and often less. If a Qarsherskiyan person has 9.4% Native American DNA on their DNA test results, this is elevated amounts of Native American ancestry suggesting a relatively recent Native American ancestry or endogamy among families descended from Native American progenitors of some subgroups of the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community.
The fourth stage the internet trolls used was attempting to delegitimize the cultural traditions of the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan communities. One family in Brunswick, Georgia that self-identifies as Ethnic Qarsherskiyan descended from Gullah Geechee people in one branch of their family, and regularly maintained ties with the Gullah Geechee people, identifying with the community and keeping the traditions of the Gullah Geechee. A big part of the Qarsherskiyan fusion culture is keeping all the traditions passed down from ancestors of different backgrounds. If a White ancestors from Germany passed down a recipe to make a Stollen Bread Cake and a Black American ancestor passed down the tradition of Jigging, the thing to do would be to keep both traditions. Nobody sees a need to choose to keep traditions from one part of their family tree. And so the Qarsherskiyan people's culture is influenced by traditions inherited from ancestors of different racial backgrounds that married into the community. This is where the haters come in and try to create confusion and spread misinformation about the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community. They may point at a man playing the banjo and say, "he's not from Appalachia, that's cultural appropriation." But the man playing the banjo isn't engaged in cultural appropriation. It is a tradition that has been passed down through generations in his family from someone long ago who was from Appalachia. Gatekeepers often falsely accuse Ethnic Qarsherskiyan people of appropriating traditions they rightfully inherited from their ancestors. A Lightskin Qarsherskiyan person may look White, but if he has Black ancestry and was raised among the Black community as an accepted member and sees himself as mixed race, it isn't cultural appropriation for him to make hip-hop music and soul food if his ancestors were Black people who passed these traditions down to him through generations of his family. It's not about looks, but cultural continuity and acceptance. The Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community almost seems to have an unwritten rule that's important to remember even if nobody proclaims it, it is enforced, and that's to never claim any community that does not claim you. But all legitimate descendants who genuinely seek reconnection are welcome to be part of the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community as long as they wish to.
The fifth stage the internet trolls used to attack the identity of the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan people was character assassination of well-known and respected people in the community. Monique Saba Osman, one of the original youths from the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community to begin posting information about the community online at the end of the 2010s, was falsely accused of saying she wanted all White people "gone" in one video posted to TikTok. The source of this claim has been taken out of context, and in reality, she had been saying, "I was not aware my friend let in all these random people I don't know in my house, I said, 'who are all these White people? They need to go!'"
Her clip was taken out of context and it was made to appear as if she had said "These White people, they need to go!"
The original context of the clip was removed. Monique Saba Osman faced a relentless 4 weeks of constant harassment, anonymous phone calls, and threats.
Another prominent member of the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community who is among the top 3 most well-known people on social media representing and covering the Qarsherskiyan identity was also targeted by internet trolls.
Brennan "Sultan Ali Redbeard" White, friend of the creator of the ISoQ micronation and former leader of the micronation, was falsely accused of being "the face of" or even "the leader of" the ethnic identity. Brennan continuously clarified that the nickname Sultan Ali was given to him when he converted to Islam and Redbeard was added when he converted to Shia Islam and was a teenager growing in his beard and everyone was surprised to see he had a ginger beard, which doesn't match his hair, brows, or body hair.
"I had to keep repeating myself over and over again saying, 'the Islamic Sultanate of Qarsherskiy is a micronation named after the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan people, the vast majority of Qarsherskiyan people had no involvement in the micronation and most have never even heard of it. I was selected and chosen to lead a micronation my friend created and I was extensively involved in, and because of my nickname it was deemed fit that I become known as the sultan of the micronation named 'Islamic Sultanate of Qarsherskiy' but by no means am I the 'Sultan of the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan people' as there is no leader of the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community. People in our community don't all agree on religious or political views and many dislike the micronation I was involved in for using the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan Heritage Flag as the same flag for my micronation."
The sixth stage used by internet trolls to attack the identity of the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan people was to falsely claim unsavory individuals with bad reputations were in charge of the community, even though there is no leader of the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community. Internet trolls did extensive research and found that one descendant of the community, who doesn't identify as Ethnic Qarsherskiyan and isn't involved in the community or in the struggle to document information about the community, was one such accusation. Internet trolls made posts to the internet of a registered sex offender and falsely claimed he was "the face of the community" or "a well-respected and integral part of the community". The man in question is a descendant of the community but isn't involved in any community events and doesn't even identify as Ethnic Qarsherskiyan, with his government ID and criminal records showing he identifies as "White" and not even as a BIPOC individual.
The seventh stage internet trolls used to attack the identity of the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan people was to make false claims about who the Qarsherskiyan people claim to be and then condemn those stances as false. One internet user on Reddit falsely claimed the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan Tribe was a "Pretendian organization" despite the fact that the Qarsherskiyan community doesn't even claim to be Indigenous or Native American, only claiming many Qarsherskiyan people have genetic Native American racial heritage, which DNA tests have confirmed is true. This does not mean that those individuals are Native American and they do not claim to be with the exception of those who are enrolled in federally or state recognized Native American tribes. Another internet user with a page dedicated to "exposing the Qarsherskiyan community" made a statement falsely claiming the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community was claiming to be part of communities which the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community doesn't claim to be part of. Respected elders from the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community made public Facebook posts explaining:
"The Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community does not claim to be Melungeon or Lumbee. That's against the very definition of Qarsherskiyan. People who qualify to claim Qarsherskiyan heritage and identify as Qarsherskiyan and connect with our community are either descended from Atlantic Creole descendants who came to or were brought to the USA or Canada; or they're of centuries old multigenerationally mixed race heritage that is described by the term 'Triracial Isolate' but NOT part of one of the named groups that were labelled before 1991 as distinguished communities. That means that Lumbee and Melungeon folks are not Qarsherskiyan, and our identity is a distinct identity not part of those communities. We have our own community here."
False claims that the Qarsherskiyan community claims to be Métis with a capital M or that they claim to be Indigenous were debunked by respected members of the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community.
The eighth stage which internet trolls have used to attempt to undermine the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan identity was impersonating members of the Qarsherskiyan community. Dozens of Instagram and Facebook accounts pretending to be members of the community were recently simultaneously banned as part of a widespread reporting campaign and crackdown launched by youth under the instructions of concerned elders saying their personal information was being stolen. Youth with internet know-how helped preserve the integrity of the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community's online campaign to document the community and gain recognition from the public and local governments.

Part 5 of 7, the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan cultural events
Several prominent social media influencers who were well-respected by the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community online used the internet to plan and set up Ethnic Qarsherskiyan Homecoming Events, a series of family reunions, meetings, and cultural gatherings in various cities and towns across the USA and Canada meant to foster unity and community bonding.

Part 6 of 7, Kiderelloz
Kiderelloz is a holiday celebrated by some members of the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community to welcome the arrival of Spring and the start of a new growing season and new year. The holiday is a cultural holiday and not a religious holiday, having no worship or prayers or religious symbols used, and features symbolism from popular culture and Qarsherskiyan culture, but has it's origins in the Muslim minority, with 29.9% of Ethnic Qarsherskiyan people following Islam according to polls that asked 500 of the nearly 3,000 people who currently self-identify as Ethnic Qarsherskiyan as of early 2026.
The term Kiderelloz comes from a combination of the words Khidr and Eliyos, referring to two characters mentioned in the Bible and in the Quran, who, according to some religious traditions, met. The holiday has been stripped of it's religious origins and is a cultural holiday which all descendants and allies of the community of all faiths are allowed to participate in. It originated from Roma Muslims who married into the community after immigrating to the USA from the Balkans region.
During Kiderelloz, people eat snacks and dinner together and may build a bonfire which people run towards and jump across, symbolizing the "burning off" of the heavy burdens and stresses of the past year, and welcoming in a new growing season and a new "clean start".
Some critics within the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community claim the holiday shouldn't be celebrated as someone may not clear the jump and land in the fire amongst the burning logs and flames, and also say that the holiday's origins from Roma Muslims from Turkiye and the Balkans marrying into the community may be problematic of the Roma community changes their mind and makes the holiday less of an open practice. While the Roma families welcomed all to enjoin in the practice, many Qarsherskiyan elders have stated that it's risky and doesn't have uniquely Qarsherskiyan origins and that most Ethnic Qarsherskiyan families don't have the lineage required to claim the traditions, despite it's transformation among the Qarsherskiyan community as a unique holiday made about starting a growing season.
"Since Kiderelloz was first started decades ago, my family has long had the tradition of using the ashes to fertilize the garden when the fire dies down and cools off," says Juanita Driggers of Silver Springs, Florida, "Kiderelloz is usually either celebrated on the Spring Equinox or in different local areas people have traditions on when to celebrate based on when certain local plants bud or bloom, like when the Red Maples and Florida Maples flower, some Qarsherskiyan folks in Lake, Sumter, and Marion Counties in Florida celebrate Kiderelloz while others wait until around March 20th or 21st for the equinox."

Part 7 of 7, Qarsherskiyan Christians
Qarsherskiyan Christians have been spreading word of the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan identity among fellow church-goer, helping raise awareness of the identity and the community and enabling descendants to learn about the term and reconnect with the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan community.