Did you hear the one about the Muslim man who cut off his wife’s nose to spite her face? It’s not a joke. In America, Christian women have the right to freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and they have the right to vote. In Pakistan, where the prevailing religion is “peaceful” Islam, women and little 14-year-old girls like Malala Yousafzai can be brutally beaten, maimed, or murdered for expressing opinions contrary to the tenets of the Taliban, an Islamic militant group that seems to operate unchecked by the corrupt Pakistani government.At the tender age of 11, little Malala began criticizing the Taliban’s treatment of girls’ schools in her area. Her advocacy for women’s equality earned her a reputation around Pakistan, and she became the first recipient of Pakistan’s National Peace Award for Youth, according to Aljazeera News. Yet it also earned her the unbearable scorn and hatred of Taliban members, some of whom decided to hunt her down three years later and shoot her in the neck and head as she climbed off her school bus.
After an intense public outcry erupted among Pakistani women and the international community, Taliban spokesman Ehsan ullah Ehsan showed the world the true face of Islam when he stated, “Although she was young and a girl and Taliban does not believe in attacking women but whomsoever leads any campaign against Islam and Shariah is ordered to be killed by Shariah. It is not merely allowed to kill such a person but it is obligatory in Islam.”
Ehsanullah Ehsan, Taliban spokesman.Consider for a moment the potency of Eshan’s words. They perfectly illustrate the fact that not all religions are created equal. Those who maliciously label Christians as hate-filled bigots need to take a step back and reread Ehsan’s words. Not only does our Judeo-Christian heritage outright forbid us to kill our enemies; it explicitly requires us to respond with love to them. We don’t have to agree with what they say, but we live in a country whose Christian foundations protect opposing beliefs and welcome civil debate.Thank God we are free to speak our minds, work outside of the home, vote, and hold public office. American women fought hard against oppressive social norms and earned those rights. Malala and her mother, sisters, and girlfriends in Pakistan are not so blessed. Malala questioned the station of women under Islam’s oppressive thumb, and the Taliban tried to put her six feet under the ground.
Pray for Malala as she currently recovers in a London hospital.
And ladies, don’t take your right to be heard — or your right to vote — for granted, lest we embrace those so-called “peaceful” religions, whose “obligation” is to kill any and every infidel who calls out Islam for the false and hate-filled religion that it is.