This is a cross-post from Howie’s Corner
The whole world was shocked and disgusted by the attempt of supporters of the Taliban to assassinate fourteen year old Malala Yousafzai on her way to school in the small town of Mingora, Pakistan last October. Her “crime”? Wanting an education for both herself and her fellow young women.
She survived the attack and now lives in Birmingham and continues to be an inspiration for girls and women world wide to better themselves through education.
The sight of a child being hunted down by murderous religious fundamentalists (or bigots to give them their real name) cannot but appal any civilised person no matter what their race, religion or creed. It is simply unacceptable on every moral level. Of that there can be dispute.
Except there are those who continue to pursue such barbarism. The “man” (and I use the term loosely in this case) who ordered this crime against humanity has been chosen as the new leader of the Taliban death cult. CBS News reports:
Mullah Fazlullah has just been chosen as the new leader of the Tehreek-i-Taliban, the Pakistani Taliban Movement, according to a Pakistani official. This follows the death of Hakimullah Mehsud, the previous leader, who, with a $5 million bounty on this head, was killed last week in a U.S. drone strike.
“The Taliban have elected Mullah Fazlullah as their new leader,” said a Pakistani intelligence official based in the northern city of Peshawar who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity.
The Independent continues:
The new commander led the Taliban’s iron-fisted domination of Pakistan’s Swat Valley between 2007-2009, when girls’ schools were closed and destroyed and suspected informants flogged and beheaded in the street.
The former tourist haven was eventually recaptured following failed negotiations and then a bloody operation by the army. Fazlullah was forced across the border into eastern Afghanistan where he has set up base, from which he has conducted repeated attacks. Recent reports said his fighters were active in the Afghan provinces of Nuristan and Kunar.
A former chair-lift operator, Fazlullah became known as Radio Mullah after he started delivering illegal, fiery radio sermons, broadcast via FM radio in the Swat Valley. Sometimes he would announce his fatwas and orders for executions over the air waves.
He is held responsible for attacks on both soft and high-profile targets, including the killing of Maj Gen Sanaullah Khan Niazi in September, struck by a roadside bomb close to the Afghan border.
Among Fazlullah’s darkest deeds was his order for the assassination attempt on the schoolgirl activist, Malala Yousafzai, who had written an anonymous blog on the BBC website about life in the valley under Taliban rule. Later, she became an outspoken campaigner for girls’ education.
“We had no intentions to kill her but were forced when she would not stop speaking against us,” a Taliban spokesman said last year after two men were recruited to find and kill her.
Forced? Who are they trying to kid. The Taliban kill and maim in the name of their twisted version of Islam any and all that dare speak out.
Malala was just a child. What so-called religion can justify assassinating children?
