Clerics declare Malala shooting ‘un-Islamic’

QuestCinq.com

October 12, 2012 11:00 pm

–Religious leaders in Pakistan have condemned the shooting of teenage education rights activist Malala Yousafzai, during a special day of prayer across the country.

Clerics on Friday declared the attempt on her life, made by Pakistani Taliban gunmen while the 14-year-old girl was on her way home from school in the Swat valley, to be “un-Islamic”.

The joint fatwa, or religious edict, was issued by at least 50 scholars associated with the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), and appealed to worshippers to observe a “day of condemnation” on Friday.

“Islam holds the killing of one innocent person as killing the entirety of humanity,” Hamid Saeed Kazmi, a former religious affairs minister in Pakistan, told reporters.

“It also forbids the killing of a woman who has even denounced her religion.”

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said Yousafzai, who had risen to international prominence for decrying Taliban efforts to stop girls from attending school in northwest Pakistan, had been “leading a campaign against Islam”.

But the clerics of the SIC said that attacking innocent women and children “was not jihad”. They also said the attackers were “agents of Washington”, defaming Islam, undermining Pakistan and legitimising the branding of Muslims as “terrorists”.

Yousafzai remains in critical condition, with doctors fearful of potential brain damage after removing a bullet from her skull. She remains stable and sedated, said a statement at a military press briefing early on Friday afternoon.

“Her condition is not yet out of danger despite improvement. She is being shifted to Rawalpindi,” Masood Kausar, the governor of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told reporters.

Earlier, one of her doctors, Mumtaz Khan, said that Yousafzai had improved, but she was still seriously ill.

“She has been put on a ventilator for two days. The bullet has affected some part of the brain, but there is a 70 per cent chance that she will survive,” he said.

Worldwide support 

Ziauddin Yousafzai, Malala’s father, told Al Jazeera that was warmed by the support his daughter had received from people of all faiths across the globe.

“I am very much satisfied from the treatment which has given to Malala so far and very much hopeful that she will recover soon with the prayers of the people and with the blessings of Almighty Allah.

“I am a lucky person to whom Allah has blessed Malala as a daughter because not only our Muslim Ummah has prayed for her life but even Christians, Hindus, Sikhs; everyone who came to know about Malala’s incident has prayed for her life,” Yousafzai said.

“Especially when I watch Television and see small kids praying for Malala’s life it gives me more strength and hope that Malala the Nation’s daughter will recover soon… and one day she will be going back to school to accomplish her dreams for humanity.”

Despite national and international condemnation, her attackers remain at large, despite a $105,000 bounty for their capture….(Aljazeera)