Target: Girls ...

Earlier today I was sent a link from the Aljazeera online page. It is a report on the serious codition of Malala Yousafzi, the 14 year old shot by a 'Taliban' gunman for daring to air her views on education for girls. This brave young woman is the latest victim in an ongoing struggle for the hearts and souls of the young people of Afghanistan and Pakistan - and, I dare say, a few other struggling nations. This courageous young lady comes from the Pakistani Province of Swat, a border province and refuge of Taliban and other tribal extremists who firmly believe that the proper place for any Muslim woman - if not all women - is, to use a rather crude expression, 'bare foot, pregnant, and under her man.'

Where does this perception come from? In part, it does come from the Quran, but the passages in that book have been expanded, developed and interpretted to take on a meaning of total and absolute subservience to her man, whether her father, brothers or her husband. Ironically, the full 'burkha' and the headscarf are also not in the Quran, these are late impositions, the Burkha coming from the desert dwelling tribes where it may originally have been worn to protect a woman's skin from the harsh conditions. The headscarf has echoes with Judaism and Christianity in that it was 'required' headdress for worship in both religions, only in Islam has it become compulsory at all times when out doors for women.

One of the problems for Islam, particularly in Pakistan at the moment, but emerging now in many other societies is the concept of the 'Madrasa,' essentially a school for children in which they are taught their faith. The problem, according to a friend of mine from Pakistan, is that the majority of these are established and run by men whose actual education in the wider concepts and theology of their faith is extremely limited and often very informal. It is, according to my friend, a perfect place for the 'Imams' that run them, to foster and develop extreme interpretations, and extremist following. Often they use coercion, punishment and reward to compel obedience and reinforce their twisted teaching. It is the product of these 'schools' that one sees burning flags, stabbing effigies and ranting and chanting amid burning cars and rubbish in the streets of Islamic lands whenever there is some 'offence' perpetrated against their 'faith' in the west.

Part of the problem is that there is a struggle going on within Islam for control of the faithful and the future direction of the faith itself. Most people are now aware of the division between Sunni and Shi'a, but within those there are further divisions, within the Sunni following one finds the Wahabi and Sufi schools, though the Sufi, in truth, crosses into Shi'a as well. As in Medieval Christinaity, the struggle for control spills over into many aspects of everyone's daily life, and the 'leaders' of the faith seek, rather like the Roman Popes, to have secular as well as temporal power. As always this leads to a blurring of the faith itself and abuse of the people who make up the majority of the faithful.

In the Madrasa system, children are indoctinated in a way even Ignatius Loyolla  would have found extreme, and the fruits are the suicide bombers, the Taliban, Hezbollah and Hamas to name but a few. To categorise them as the 'typical' example of the followers of Islam is to do the true followers a terrible dis-service, but,as my friend put it, Islam has to 'grow up' and learn to compromise. As with Christinaity and Judaism, the core is service to God, moral behaviour and respect for each other. The extremists deny all except the first, and that has to be changed. But it can only be changed by the followers of Islam themselves. And that will not be easy, but, with God's help, not impossible.

At least there is a glimmer of hope that we are seeing the beginning of the end of the dark night of extremism. The Aljazeera report mentions that a number of Islamic theologians have condemned this attack, labelling it "un-Islamic." Let us hope and pray that others will take up the cry and find the strength to do what this 14 year old victim of extremist bigotry has begun - and show the extremists the exit.

As Churchil said, "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

Let us hope so. In the meantime, please join me in praying for this courageous young woman and her family as she is treated now in the UK after a long and probably fraught mercy flight.