Muslims across the Swat valley have been speaking about the attack on 14 year-old activist Malala Yousafzai, calling for the government to punish her attackers.
Several clerics issued a fatwa against the Taliban for the barbaric shooting.
Aljazeera reported:
Religious leaders in Pakistan have condemned the shooting of teenage education rights activist Malala Yousafzai, during a special day of prayer across the country.
Clerics on Friday declared the attempt on her life, made by Pakistani Taliban gunmen while the 14-year-old girl was on her way home from school in the Swat valley, to be “un-Islamic”.
The joint fatwa, or religious edict, was issued by at least 50 scholars associated with the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), and appealed to worshippers to observe a “day of condemnation” on Friday.
“Islam holds the killing of one innocent person as killing the entirety of humanity,” Hamid Saeed Kazmi, a former religious affairs minister in Pakistan, told reporters.
“It also forbids the killing of a woman who has even denounced her religion.”
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said Yousafzai, who had risen to international prominence for decrying Taliban efforts to stop girls from attending school in northwest Pakistan, had been “leading a campaign against Islam”.
But the clerics of the SIC said that attacking innocent women and children “was not jihad”. They also said the attackers were “agents of Washington”, defaming Islam, undermining Pakistan and legitimising the branding of Muslims as “terrorists”.
Yousafzai remains in critical condition, with doctors fearful of potential brain damage after removing a bullet from her skull. She remains stable and sedated, said a statement at a military press briefing early on Friday afternoon.
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