Juan Cole: Rather Than Just Honor Nobelist Malala Yousafzai, We Should Listen to Her

[kpete]

Juan Cole
Rather Than Just Honor Nobelist Malala Yousafzai, We Should Listen to Her




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It should be remembered that Ms. Yousafzai told Barack Obama off about his drone strikes in the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) of northwest Pakistan. She said of her meeting with the US president, “I also expressed my concerns that drone attacks are fueling terrorism… Innocent victims are killed in these acts, and they lead to resentment among the Pakistani people. If we refocus efforts on education it will make a big impact.”

She appears to oppose military action against the Taliban: ‘If you hit a Talib with your shoe, then there would be no difference between you and the Talib. You must not treat others with cruelty and that much harshly, you must fight others but through peace and through dialogue and through education.’

She approvingly quoted her father as criticizing novelist Salman Rushdie for his book Satannic Verses, but as standing for freedom of speech for such authors. Her remarks caused her book to be banned in many Pakistani private schools, angering the country’s fundamentalists. She also criticized the denial of rights to Pakistan’s Ahmadi minority.

Honoring someone with the bravery and resiliency and ethical intelligence of a Malala Yousafzai is easy. Taking her more challenging positions seriously and engaging with them is much more difficult.

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MORE:
http://www.juancole.com/2014/10/listening-yusufzai-honoring.html
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/rather_than_just_honor_nobelist_malala_yousafzai_we_need_to_listen_20141011

[Wounded Bear]

1. I think I'll award today's "No Shit, Sherlock" award to Juan...

If only someone was listening.

[liberal_at_heart]

2. I think she will one day be remembered with the giants like Martin Luther King Jr., and Gandhi.

She is awesome. So does anyone here on DU want to criticize her for criticizing the President? Huh? Huh?

[MisterP]

3. she's a Trot, pacifist, *and* the NRA says she knows nothing about guns

that's not the sort of charismatic Muslim lady we need in this country: the proper thing they should be saying over the airwaves is "please to bomb us now"