Angry Mobs
A young girl - Malala Yousufzai - was shot in the neck by Islamic extremists in Pakistan the other day - two of her friends were also injured in the attack as the girls stepped off a school bus.
The young girl's 'crime' was to write a blog when she was aged just 11 for the BBC's Urdu language website - which became an great hit and symbol of resistance to the Pakistan Taleban which had taken control of a region known as Swat in 2008.
The Taleban in Swat (as in Afghanistan) banned girls from going to school and receiving a proper education - but Malala wrote about her experience, albeit anonymously at the time.
Malala told the Pakistani magazine Newsline recently that she was scared of being discovered - but was also determined not to let the Taleban insurgents stop her education:
“We would wear plain clothes and pretend that we weren’t students,” she said. At first she kept the blog a secret even from her closest friends. “Later when they came to know, they told me that I was endangering my life but, still, they were happy that there was someone to speak up for them.”
Apparently hundreds of people gathered outside the hospital where Malala she received initial treatment - offering to donate blood - which is heartening to hear.
But so far at least I've not read any reports of angry mobs taking to the streets - to protest against the violence and intimidation involved.
Seems like the country's religious and political leaders can work themselves up into a terrible lather over a ridiculous film about Islam - yet a cowardly attack on a bright young girl raises hardly a murmur.
By way of contrast consider the fact that a Pakistani Minister- Ghulam Ahmad Bilour -told a recent news conference that he would pay a bounty of $100,000 to anyone who killed the maker of the 'Innocence of Muslims' film:
"I announce today that this blasphemer, this sinner who has spoken nonsense about the holy Prophet, anyone who murders him, I will reward him with $100,000. I invite the Taliban brothers and the al Qaeda brothers to join me in this blessed mission".
With such religious extremists in government - things can only get worse in Pakistan before they get better.
