Source: blogs.tribune.com.pk

Though Malala survived the Taliban’s bullets last year, she is now again under attack in Pakistan by the very same ideology. They attacked her physically then, and now they are out to get her soul.

Right-wing anchors and self-proclaimed intellectuals have taken to disrepute her book by claiming that it reeks of a ‘Western agenda’. If a young Pakistani girl in dupatta, standing up for education and speaking against radicalisation, demanding an end to the drone war, advocating peaceful resolution to the terrorist menace which Pakistan is plagued with and speaking of hope in a progressive Pakistan, is what constitutes a ‘Western agenda’, then I’d welcome more of it.

Ansar Abbasi and Orya Maqbool Jaan have been at the forefront of the offensive. Here is what they vociferously present as a ‘Western agenda’.

Malala and Salman Rushdie

Malala writes in her book regarding the Satanic Verses,

‘My father also saw the book as offensive to Islam but believes strongly in freedom of speech. “First, let’s read the book and then why not respond with our own book,” he suggested. He ended by asking in a thundering voice my grandfather would have been proud of, “Is Islam such a weak religion that it cannot tolerate a book written against it? Not my Islam!”’

All Muslims – including Malala and her father – found Rushdie’s novel offensive. However, instead of the widespread violence that ensued across parts of the Muslim world in which Muslims, ironically, lost their lives, Malala’s father believed Rushdie’s offensive novel should be responded to in the form of a literary rejoinder like this one. There are many Muslims who share the same opinion on responding to blasphemous publications. Not all Muslims share the knee-jerk “kill the blasphemer” reflex.

Saying that Malala was not against Rushdie’s Satanic verses is clearly either a case of intellectual dishonesty or dire lack of English comprehension skills on the part of the Oryas and Abbasis.

Malala’s love for the Ahmadis

Malala writes in her book,

‘Now we are a country of 180 million and more than 96 per cent are Muslim. We also have around two million Christians and more than two million Ahmadis, who say they are Muslims though our government says they are not. Sadly those minority communities are often attacked.’

Malala merely stated a fact. Ahmadis do… continue reading at blogs.tribune.com.pk