Malala is in favor of the Islamic ideology enough to donate $50,000 to UN schools in Gaza that Hamas uses for its jihad against Israel, but that isn’t good enough for the All Pakistan Private Schools Federation. This story shows the cognitive dissonance between the non-Muslim West’s fantasy-based view of Islam and the reality on the ground. In the West, Malala is a hero — not despite of but no doubt in part because of her hatred for Israel. But in Pakistan, 150,000 schools across the country are expressing their opposition to her — 150,000 schools filled with Muslims whom the West assumes to be misunderstanders of Islam.
“Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Laureate, Is Assailed by Schools Group in Pakistan,” by Salman Masood, New York Times, November 10, 2014:
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A network of private schools on Monday unleashed a scathing public attack on Malala Yousafzai, the teenage Nobel laureate, in the most concerted assault yet on her reputation in her home country.
The All Pakistan Private Schools Federation, which claims to represent 150,000 schools across Pakistan, declared that Monday would be “I am not Malala” day and urged the government to ban her memoir, “I Am Malala,” because it offended Islam and the “ideology of Pakistan.”
“We are all for education and women’s empowerment,” said Mirza Kashif Ali, the organization’s president. “But the West has created this persona who is against the Constitution and Islamic ideology of Pakistan.”
The public denunciation of Ms. Yousafzai, 17, who has been hailed all over the world as a figure of courage, reflected how differently her celebrity has been received in some parts of Pakistani society — even after she jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize with the Indian child rights activist Kailash Satyarthi last month.
Abroad, Ms. Yousafzai is revered for continuing her impassioned advocacy of education and girls’ rights after being shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in 2012. She is currently studying in Britain, where she lives with her exiled family.
But in her homeland, Ms. Yousafzai divides opinion. While some Pakistanis have lionized her as a national hero, others portray her as a Western stooge who has maligned both country and religion.
Conservatives frequently cite from her memoir, written with Christina Lamb, a journalist, to bolster their case. During the news conference on Monday, Mr. Ali accused Ms. Yousafzai of defending the author Salman Rushdie, whose novel “The Satanic Verses” remains banned in Pakistan, in her book.
“It is clear that Malala has a nexus with Salman Rushdie and is aligned with his club,” he said.
In fact, the book notes only that Ms. Yousafzai’s father saw “The Satanic Verses” as “offensive to Islam,” and that he said that Muslims should first read the novel, then respond.
“Is Islam such a weak religion that it cannot tolerate a book written against it? Not my Islam!” the book quotes her father as saying….