Pakistani education officials said Sunday that they have banned teenage activist Malala Yousafzai\u2019s book from private schools across the country, claiming it doesn\u2019t show enough respect for Islam and calling her a tool of the West.<\/p>\n
\nPakistani education officials said Sunday that they have banned teenage activist Malala Yousafzai\u2019s book from private schools across the country, claiming it doesn\u2019t show enough respect for Islam and calling her a tool of the West.
\nMalala attracted global attention last year when the Taliban shot her in the head in northwest Pakistan for criticizing the group\u2019s interpretation of Islam, which limits girls\u2019 access to education. Her profile has risen steadily since then, and she released a memoir in October, \u201cI Am Malala,\u201d that was co-written with British journalist Christina Lamb.
\nWhile Malala has become a hero to many across the world for opposing the Taliban and standing up for girls\u2019 education, conspiracy theories have flourished in Pakistan that her shooting was staged to create a hero for the West to embrace.
\nAdeeb Javedani, president of the All Pakistan Private Schools Management Association, said his group banned Malala\u2019s book from the libraries of its 40,000 affiliated schools and called on the government to bar it from school curriculums.
\n\u201cEverything about Malala is now becoming clear,\u201d Javedani said. \u201cTo me, she is representing the West, not us.\u201d
\nKashif Mirza, the chairman of the All Pakistan Private Schools Federation, said his group also has banned Malala\u2019s book in its affiliated schools.
\nMalala \u201cwas a role model for children, but this book has made her controversial,\u201d Mirza said. \u201cThrough this book, she became a tool in the hands of the Western powers.\u201d
\nHe said the book did not show enough respect for Islam because it mentioned Prophet Muhammad\u2019s name without using the abbreviation PUH \u2014 \u201cpeace be upon him\u201d \u2014 as is customary in many parts of the Muslim world. He also said it spoke favourably of author Salman Rushdie, who angered many Muslims with his book \u201cThe Satanic Verses,\u201d and Ahmadis, members of a minority sect that have been declared non-Muslims under Pakistani law.
\nIn her reference to Rushdie, Malala said in the book that her father saw \u201cThe Satanic Verses\u201d as \u201coffensive to Islam but believes strongly in the freedom of speech.\u201d
\n\u201cFirst, let\u2019s read the book and then why not respond with our own book,\u201d the book quoted her father as saying.
\nMalala mentioned in the book that Pakistan\u2019s population of 180 million people includes more than 2 million Ahmadis, \u201cwho say they are Muslim though our government says they are not.\u201d
\n\u201cSadly those minority communities are often attacked,\u201d the book said, referring also to Pakistan\u2019s 2 million Christians.
\nThe conspiracy theories around Malala reflect the level of influence that right-wing Islamists sympathetic to the Taliban have in Pakistan. They also reflect the poor state of education in Pakistan, where fewer than half the country\u2019s children ever complete a basic, primary education.
\nMillions of children attend private school throughout the country because of the poor state of the public system.
\nThe Taliban blew up scores of schools and discouraged girls from getting an education when they took over the Swat Valley, where Malala lived, several years ago. The army staged a large ground offensive in Swat in 2009 that pushed many militants out of the valley, but periodic attacks still occur. The mastermind of the attack on Malala, Mullah Fazlullah, recently was appointed the new head of the Pakistani Taliban after the former chief was killed in a U.S. drone strike.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pakistani education officials said Sunday that they have banned teenage activist Malala Yousafzai\u2019s book from private schools across the country, claiming it doesn\u2019t show enough respect for Islam and calling…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n