Post by dustdevil28 on Oct 10, 2012 17:14:57 GMT -8
A female blogger targeted for assasination survived a gun shot wound to the neck in an attack which appears to be galvanizing many Pakistani's against the Tehrik i Taliban.
Although CNN was reporting this as an attack by the Afghan Taliban.
..........................
(CNN) -- Just days before the Nobel committee announces the winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, the world found out who stands at the opposite extreme on the quest for peace and justice. We have discovered who the biggest cowards on the planet are today.
The competition for the mark of shame is hard fought, but the title goes to the men who approached a van carrying girls home from school in Pakistan on Tuesday and asked for one very special 14-year-old. Then shot her in the head.
The world's worst cowards are the members of the Pakistani Taliban. Perhaps they believe their thick dark beards, dangerous weapons and fanatical religious pronouncement make them fierce warriors. But their actions tell the true story: The Pakistani Taliban are terrified of a 14-year-old girl named Malala Yousufzai.
And why are they so afraid of Malala? Mostly, because she is not afraid of them.
And because Malala is a relentless advocate of education for girls, something the Taliban find very threatening.
The Taliban, with all their bravado, seem to fear women most of all.
The cravenness that has come to define the group -- also known as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP -- is easily matched by Malala's stunning bravery. The fearless activist for girls' education now lies in a hospital bed trying to recover from serious injuries to her head and neck. Overnight doctors performed emergency surgery to remove a bullet near her spinal cord and to relieve swelling in her brain.
Malala knew she was on a TTP hit list, but she did not back down. The Taliban, whose religious, social and political views are founded on a brutally anti-woman ideology, cannot countenance even a young girl challenging their ideas on a blog.
Shortly after Tuesday's assassination attempt, which also left two of Malala's school friends wounded, TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan acknowledged the group tried to kill her and vowed they will try to do it again if she survives. As is common, he couched the threats in extreme interpretations of Islam and on repression and intimidation of women. "Any female that, by any means, plays a role in the war against the mujahedeen," Ehsan declared, "should be killed."
The TTP spokesman called Malala's advocacy for education "a new chapter of obscenity," adding, "We have to finish this chapter." He also accused her of being pro-West and admiring President Barack Obama.
Malala started to become a problem for the TTP when she was just 11. The Pakistani Taliban, who hold the same ideology but are not directly affiliated with the Afghan Taliban, had taken over Pakistan's Swat Valley. Pakistani politicians were turning a blind eye to what had become an increasingly brutal regime. They executed their critics, ordered all men to grow beards and whipped women in public as punishment for real, imagined or fabricated offenses.
It was all about imposing their will, their version of Islamic law, and subjugating the entire population, but women in particular.
The Taliban reportedly had destroyed more than 200 schools and ordered all girls' schools shut down when Malala slowly emerged from obscurity. In 2009, she started writing a blog for the BBC under a pseudonym, talking about her dreams for the future and how the Taliban were pushing those aspirations further and further out of reach.
Her story helped bring attention to the disaster befalling the population of the storied Swat Valley. At about the same time, the videotaped beating of a 17-year-old girl by a group of Taliban went viral in Pakistan, adding chilling images to a girl's lament
www.cnn.com/2012/10/10/opinion/ghitis-malala-yousufzai/index.html?hpt=hp_c1
Although CNN was reporting this as an attack by the Afghan Taliban.
..........................
(CNN) -- Just days before the Nobel committee announces the winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, the world found out who stands at the opposite extreme on the quest for peace and justice. We have discovered who the biggest cowards on the planet are today.
The competition for the mark of shame is hard fought, but the title goes to the men who approached a van carrying girls home from school in Pakistan on Tuesday and asked for one very special 14-year-old. Then shot her in the head.
The world's worst cowards are the members of the Pakistani Taliban. Perhaps they believe their thick dark beards, dangerous weapons and fanatical religious pronouncement make them fierce warriors. But their actions tell the true story: The Pakistani Taliban are terrified of a 14-year-old girl named Malala Yousufzai.
And why are they so afraid of Malala? Mostly, because she is not afraid of them.
And because Malala is a relentless advocate of education for girls, something the Taliban find very threatening.
The Taliban, with all their bravado, seem to fear women most of all.
The cravenness that has come to define the group -- also known as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP -- is easily matched by Malala's stunning bravery. The fearless activist for girls' education now lies in a hospital bed trying to recover from serious injuries to her head and neck. Overnight doctors performed emergency surgery to remove a bullet near her spinal cord and to relieve swelling in her brain.
Malala knew she was on a TTP hit list, but she did not back down. The Taliban, whose religious, social and political views are founded on a brutally anti-woman ideology, cannot countenance even a young girl challenging their ideas on a blog.
Shortly after Tuesday's assassination attempt, which also left two of Malala's school friends wounded, TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan acknowledged the group tried to kill her and vowed they will try to do it again if she survives. As is common, he couched the threats in extreme interpretations of Islam and on repression and intimidation of women. "Any female that, by any means, plays a role in the war against the mujahedeen," Ehsan declared, "should be killed."
The TTP spokesman called Malala's advocacy for education "a new chapter of obscenity," adding, "We have to finish this chapter." He also accused her of being pro-West and admiring President Barack Obama.
Malala started to become a problem for the TTP when she was just 11. The Pakistani Taliban, who hold the same ideology but are not directly affiliated with the Afghan Taliban, had taken over Pakistan's Swat Valley. Pakistani politicians were turning a blind eye to what had become an increasingly brutal regime. They executed their critics, ordered all men to grow beards and whipped women in public as punishment for real, imagined or fabricated offenses.
It was all about imposing their will, their version of Islamic law, and subjugating the entire population, but women in particular.
The Taliban reportedly had destroyed more than 200 schools and ordered all girls' schools shut down when Malala slowly emerged from obscurity. In 2009, she started writing a blog for the BBC under a pseudonym, talking about her dreams for the future and how the Taliban were pushing those aspirations further and further out of reach.
Her story helped bring attention to the disaster befalling the population of the storied Swat Valley. At about the same time, the videotaped beating of a 17-year-old girl by a group of Taliban went viral in Pakistan, adding chilling images to a girl's lament
www.cnn.com/2012/10/10/opinion/ghitis-malala-yousufzai/index.html?hpt=hp_c1