Taliban scared of a little girl
Offline KARACHI, Pakistan — A Taliban gunman shot and seriously wounded a 14-year-old schoolgirl and activist in the Swat Valley in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, singling out a widely known champion of girls’ education and a potent symbol of resistance to militant ideology.
The attack occurred in Mingora, the valley’s main town, when masked gunmen stopped a bus carrying schoolgirls who had just taken an exam and sought out the 14-year-old, Malala Yousafzai, shooting her twice.
Ms. Yousafzai, who won a national peace prize last year, was shot in the head and the neck, while two other people on the bus suffered lighter injuries, local health officials said. After emergency treatment, Ms. Yousafzai was taken by helicopter to a military hospital in the provincial capital, Peshawar, where doctors said she was in stable but critical condition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/10/world/asia/teen-school-activist-malala-yousafzai-survives-hit-by-pakistani-taliban.html?_r=0
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Interesting note at the bottom.
"The Pakistani Army virtually runs Swat, either directly through a large military presence in the valleys, or indirectly through armed militias that keep the Taliban at bay. But the military has also been accused of gross human rights abuses, particularly after a leaked videotape in 2010 showed uniformed men apparently massacring Taliban prisoners."
I don't see the problem. > >
Well, I do, but I'm willing to suspend my anger for once.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Just completed a poem about her, check my poetry thread.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
I notice religious leaders have failed to speak out in support of the kid, according to some sources. I get a growing sense of islam's inability to cope with a growing; and in my opinion, unstoppable; expression of global conventional morality fueled by an increasingly pervasive Internet.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
I agree, I think the more and more exposure these radical assholes get, the less and less we will have to hear : "The REAL religion of Islam is peaceful." When people tell me that bullshit, I always ask what is exactly do they know about Islam and when has it ever been peaceful ?
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
When a society completely capitulates to the violent radicals demands. It is the 'religon of peace' after you totally submit to it as interpreted by them.
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
HOly crap GUYS I am tired of pounding this issue.
If every member of the Muslim religion were violent, this 14 year old would be on the side of the Taliban. If every member of the Muslim religion were violent pricks then WHY has a state in America ellected TWO Muslims to our United States congress?
THAT violence is a regional thing BUT it has cracks of skeptics in its ranks outherwise this girl and her supporters wouldn't have spoken out at all.
Have you forgotten what WHITE Christians did to Native Americans, blacks inslaved, women not being able to vote. Have you forgotten the civil rights struggle that not only got King and X murdered but 4 BLACK GIRLS BLOWN TO BITS by White Christians. Or the 3 voting rights volunteers murdered BY WHITE CHRISTIANS.
NOt to mention the dark ages and inquisition.
Islam has a huge problem, but that region is showing the same cracks that broke the Christian violence and bigotry here in the states. I am not going to abandon my verbal support, not of their claim that Allah exists, but the verbal support of HUMAN RIGHTS and this girl and her family were Muslim I dont think she or her supporters deserve the west abandoning her. I don't mean more wars, but simply verbal support on the net worldwide. Stop condemning with carpet bombing and treat her as an individual, she does not deserlve to be lumped in with the human garbage that did this to her.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
Islam seems to require conflict. When everyone is a muslim then some one is sunni and some one else is a shiite, or a 'funny looking' hazara, and the bombings and killings just roll on and on forever. Of course, with 10 per cent of the men marrying 40 per cent of the women, you're going to get some pent up frustration somewhere at the bottom of the food chain.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
The bottom of he food chain is getting bigger. Pakistan, India and China have cultures that favor male babies. Since the early 80's traveling gyocologists have made a fortune by takeing portable sonographs around to rural areas, showing pregnant women the sex of the child and asking if they want an abortion. If they could afford the abortion it was done, if not there was still the old tradition of infanticide. The World health Organization made a population prediction in the early 90's based on birth rates, saying that Pakistan would have well over 200 million persons by 2010. That was before the traveling abortion mill was taken into account. Its now 2012 and the population is 185 million (in a land of large familys) or about 20 million people missing do to a lack of females.
More importantly to stay on topic, there are about 16,000,000 men of marrige age who will not, ever be married or even have sex because there are no females of the same age; NONE! Yes AE 10% of the men marry 40% of the women leaving the other 90% to fret over what's left. At birth a Pakistani males is one of 8 million extra men, by age 25 his female peers have been sucked up into early and poligamus marriages and he becomes one of 16 million single young men. That is prime recruiting ground for the Taliban and every other group that resents women. I can see only more violence and resentment in the future.
btw China and India have about 50 to 60 million EXTRA young men. What ever will those young men do when they realize they will never have a woman?
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I understand that the extremists don't represent the majority of Islam. However, what always pisses me off is that the people most offended by this are non-Muslim. The Muslims should be protesting this sort of crap. You never see that though. They all flip a lid when someone makes a terrible video, or a funny cartoon. But when someone cites their god as the reason to be this barbaric, that should offend their religious sensibilities. But either it doesn't, or they are silent in their disapproval of this.
Theists - If your god is omnipotent, remember the following: He (or she) has the cure for cancer, but won't tell us what it is.
+1
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
Completely agree.
Perhaps we'll soon see China and India join many other Muslim countries on this list...
http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Muslim_Statistics_(Pornography)
<<Edit - can a moderator get that link to work properly - the parentheses are causing problems...>>
Totally agree.
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
YES I GET THAT AND IT IS BULLSHIT
But in terms of EVOLUTION what is going on is FEAR OF CHANGE. That is not a denial of using a label as an excuse, it is an explination of human group dynamic in phychological terms. There is a difference between excuse and explination. No one is excusing them or should for using their book as a weapon, but they are not the only ones who do or have. FOR THE REASONS I STATED.
It is bullshit to say that Christianity was never as barbaric when the entirety of human history has produced violence justified by creudulous promotion of bullshit utopias. Human ignorance is what causes this.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
And as far as the entirety of Islam remaning silent, what the fuck do you think this Muslim girl was doing? Challenging the status quo! So it is bullshit to say no one in Islam does that.
It is certainly not at a critical mass, but we in the west get sold a narrow veiw of the totality of human diversity in that region and you are falling for the same fearmongering those assholes who committed the crime do. Criticise Islam, YES! Criticise excuses made in the name of reading a book. YES!
But don't lump humanity with guilt by association. SHE was bucking her social norms. The same way blacks and women here in the states did with violent reprocussions by people who used the bible to justify harm to them.
You are confusing the size of the problem with the evolutionary reality that delusions in mass can cause a clusturfuck no matter what the popular delusion is. Islam has a huge problem right now. But Christianity was also as barbaric but because it has a longer history of having a secular leash, it is not the problem it once was.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
Hitchens would be for the criticism of Islam, but in his travels he made tons of Arab and Muslim friends. And there is a reason his book was titled "God is Not Great, how religion poisons everything". Because he was attacking, not one particular religion, BUT THE HISTORY OF HUMAN IGNORANCE.
Ayaan would insist on the same criticism this 14 year old did. But we cannot lose our compassion in the process. If you are going to condemn an entire label, not as a bad concept, but the false assumption that things cant change, then that is defied by the fact that Ayaan left Islam and this girl, while still religious, is ALSO bucking social norms.
I think it is more important to plant the seeds of doubt than it is to swat a fly with a sledghammer.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
Some muslims do condemn it. I also question how many try to but get ignored by the media.
Either way, the christian religion used to be just as bad, and would revert back in a heartbeat if given the opportunity. Muslims are hardly special cases.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
To be fair, I did see a couple of muslim demonstrations against this on the news. Not a lot of people (maybe 20 or so), but they had slogans and carried photos of the girl. They didn't seem very angry, but it's a start, I guess.
Taliban shooting of teenage peace activist sparks outrage across Pakistan
ISLAMABAD - Schools shut their doors in protest and Pakistanis across the country held vigils Wednesday to pray for a 14-year-old girl who was shot by a Taliban gunman after daring to advocate education for girls and criticize the militant group.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Pakistans+court+orders+probe+into+barter+girls+settle+blood+feud/7361198/story.html
Sure enough it is simply a case of most Western media ignoring what's going on.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.