“If Malala had been
killed in a drone attack, you would not hear her medical status update, neither
would she be called "daughter of the nation"; and neither would the
media make a fuss. Neither would General Kiyani come to visit nor would the
world media criticise and repeatedly report on it. This I'm afraid is the
bitter truth of the matter.”
(Author
unknown)
Despite
being enemies, it seems the Taliban and the Americans have something fundamental
in common: intolerance. Both advocate killing innocent people when they do not
concur with them; the attempted execution of Malala Yousafzai and the killing
of Anwar al-Awlaki and his family members have the same underlying theme of
intolerance. The Americans want to
impose western liberal democracy and the Taliban want to impose a draconian
(literal) version of Islamic law where there is no room for differences. What
do the ordinary masses want in Pakistan or any other Muslim country? Apart from
economic security and political stability, they want a society where there is
room for dialogue and discussion - freedom of expression within sensible
boundaries.
As
for the attempted execution of a 14-year-old girl, a soft target by any
standards and no doubt a cowardly act, there are two pertinent issues; the
Taliban ideology and the media duplicity.
On
the latter, the media duplicity is obvious, the selective outrage sparked by an
attack one teenager (Malala Yousafzai), yet there is total silence on the many
faceless and nameless Pakistanis killed and maimed by the American drones over
the last decade. The issue has nothing do with compassion for Malala; the undue
international media coverage is entirely political, another point scored in
construing the problem of militant Islam and Pakistan’s failure to deal with it.
