Source: theglobeandmail.com

Malala Yousafzai, gives her first speech since the Taliban in Pakistan tried to kill her for advocating education for girls, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, July 12, 2013. Wearing a pink head scarf, Yousafzai told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and nearly 1,000 students from around the world attending a Youth Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York that education was the only way to improve lives. (BRENDAN MCDERMID/REUTERS)

It was fitting indeed that Malala Yousafzai addressed the United Nations during the first third of Ramadan. The month’s first 10 days are regarded as the days of God’s mercy.

While her powerful speech left an indelible mark on the world, her words served as a powerful reminder to Muslims worldwide about mercy, the fundamental tenet of their religion. She began her speech with the invocation of God the most Merciful, and it was masterfully woven throughout her brief but eloquent discussion of five important themes: inclusiveness, non-violence, forgiveness, education and female self-reliance.

Malala reminded us that mercy is at the heart of the message preached by the Prophet Mohammed, Jesus and the Buddha. This serves as a powerful rejoinder against those who preach violence between faiths. It should provide impetus to the silent majority to take an assertive stand against the hatred that threatens to tear apart society’s very fabric.

She invoked the names of Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, reminding Muslims to look beyond their own sphere to the vast expanse of universal principles embodied by the many rich strands of humanity. That she acknowledged Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan and a Shiite, should give special pause considering the dangerous Sunni-Shia schism that threatens to inflame tensions in Pakistan and elsewhere in the Muslim world.

And she reminded us that the most profound changes have occurred not through armedjihad, but principled non-violence, as embodied by Gandhi, Bacha Khan (an ethnic Pashtun who mounted non-violent opposition to the British Raj in India) and Mother Teresa.

History will add Malala’s name to this illustrious list of individuals who… theglobeandmail.com