Malala, the Pakistani girl who barely escaped a murder attempt by religious extremists in response to her blog on the lack of education opportunities for girls, was recently released from hospital in the UK. Again, I must be too naive for this world, as such an attack is just incomprehensible. On the other side of the spectrum (from ideas to body), the Indian 23-year old who was mutilated, mass raped and died from her injuries shortly afterwards was just cremated. Abhorrent, bestial, and so sad.
I am currently reading Salman Rushdie's "Joseph Anton", his biography about his fatwa experience (Iran had a million-dollar bounty on his life for seven years following the publication of the Satanic Verses, and Rushdie led a very restricted under-cover life during these years). Again, to me an utterly incomprehensible reaction. I read the Satanic Verses a couple of years ago, and as Rushdie himself, cannot see anything fundamentally anti-Islamic in it.
I guess it is impossible to prevent all cases of innocent people from being attacked for their thoughts and body. But it must be possible to prevent many such attacks. They happen everywhere. I hope that they make everyone think. Think. And act.
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