Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousufzai on Tuesday criticized US presidential candidate Donald Trump at a ceremony to remember the 134 children killed in a Taliban attack on a Pakistani school a year ago.
“Well, that’s really tragic that you hear these comments which are full of hatred, full of this ideology of being discriminative towards others,” Yousufzai told reporters, in response to comments by Trump regarding Muslim immigration to the US.
His remarks would only “radicalize more terrorists,” she said.
Photo: AFP
“If your intention is to stop terrorism, do not try to blame the whole population of Muslims for it because it cannot stop terrorists,” she added.
Trump has been heavily criticized for calling for a ban on Muslims entering the US after a Muslim husband and wife killed 14 people in a shooting rampage in California, an incident classified as a terrorist act.
Speaking at the ceremony in the city of Birmingham, Yousufzai’s father, Ziauddin Yousufzai, also criticized Trump’s comments.
“It will be very unfair, very unjust that we associate 1.6 billion with a few terrorist organizations,” he said, referring to the number of Muslims worldwide.
The event was organized by Malala Yousufzai and her family, who now live in Birmingham, and two survivors of the Peshawar attack, Ahmad Nawaz, 14, and Mohammed Ibrahim, 13, who also spoke.
The massacre saw nine Muslim militants scale the walls of an army-run school in the northwestern city of Peshawar, lobbing grenades and opening fire on children and teachers.
“There are these terrorist attacks happening, for example what happened in Paris or what happened in Peshawar a year ago,” Malala Yousufzai said, referring to last month’s attack in Paris, which killed 130 people and was claimed by the Islamic State group.
“It’s not just needed in Pakistan, but across the world. If we want to end terrorism, we need to bring quality education so we defeat the mindset of terrorism mentality and of hatred,” she said.
Nawaz, dressed in a traditional shalwar kameez, recounted the horror of the Dec. 16 Peshawar attack last year, in which 17 adults were also killed.
“I saw my teacher burned alive in that incident and the friends with whom I was playing,” he told reporters.
“I was surrounded by the dead bodies of those friends. So it was the horrifying experience of my life and I still have nightmares,” he said.
Nawaz was shot in the arm. His brother was killed.
Ibrahim now must use a wheelchair, having been paralyzed from the waist down.
The Taliban assault dredged up painful memories for Malala’s family: she was shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012 after she had publicly advocated education for girls.
“When I was watching all these graphics and all these news on television, my wife was crying, I was crying,” Ziauddin Yousufzai said.
“It was unbearable. It was very hard to watch. Our own trauma revived,” he said.
“We don’t curse people, its a sin to curse and we never cursed Talibans for attacking our daughter, but I must say we cursed them that day,” he said.
Additional reporting by agencies
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