( Shared By Zafar Khizer )
This article by Nayyar Afaq describes the sad side of Pakistan where everything is judged by the prism of religion and facts are fabricated to prove conspiracy theories: a recipe for self-annihilation.
On October 11, 2013 NYT published an article “ Pakistani Girl, a Global Heroine After an Attack, Has Critics at Home” and writes;
‘That cynicism was echoed this week across Pakistan, where conspiracy-minded citizens loudly branded Ms. Yousafzai a C.I.A. agent, part of a nebulous Western plot to humiliate their country and pressure their government.”
Below is the article by Nayyar Afaq;
A few days ago, a fierce verbal battle took place between the guests on a talk show called “On The Front” hosted by Kamran Shahid. The bone of contention was the book called ‘I am Malala’ authored by the 16-year-old herself. The guest speakers included, Orya Maqbool, Ansar Abbasi, Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy and Zafar Hilaly.
With regards to the topic at hand, the conversation began with Orya Maqbool and Ansar Abbasi giving their view on the book. Highly sensationalised words were used by the two, and common ground was reached with Malala being framed as offensive towards Islam.
Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy interjected stating that he had also read the book but did not find anything against Islam in her book as claimed by the other guests. He suspected either they had not read the book attentively or were deliberately trying to malign her.
The past animosity between Dr Hoodbhoy and Ansar Abbasi fueled a debate that turned into an ugly verbal brawl on national television, with insensitive comments being exchanged by both parties. Meanwhile, Orya yelled out, rather loudly I might add, appealing to the audience to open the book in question and confirm from page 30 that Malala had written these words,
“He (Salman Rushdie) has [sic] all the right under freedom of expression, but my father said that we should write a book against him.”
Visibly astonished, Dr Hoodbhoy asked, in a calm tone, if Orya Maqbool had the book in front of him from where he had read that particular excerpt. He further asserted that there was no statement in her that was in support of Rushdie.
At that, Orya insisted that these were, in fact, the exact words taken from her book and continued to incite religious sentiments through his sermon against Malala.
During the program, Malala was also accused of favouring Ahmadis in her book. Dr Hoodbhoy, once again, denied the allegation leveled against Malala stating that this was a lie and not written anywhere in the book.
NYT article link