When a Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP) gunman stopped a school bus in the Swat valley last week and shot 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai in the head and neck - and two other girls as well - it marked perhaps the TTP's biggest strategic error so far. Their intention was to make Malala a victim for her courageous advocacy of education for girls; what they did instead was transform her into a potent national symbol of resistance against their extremist creed. Proponents of the moderate point of view she espoused, when she first blogged for BBC about life under the Taliban as an 11-year-old in 2009, are readying themselves for a fight.

So far, they have been a silent majority. The TTP's extremist creed and the military's insistence - despite occasional statements to the contrary - of looking outwards rather than inwards for the chief threat to Pakistan have shaped public discourse. But the brutality of the TTP's attack on Malala - and the callousness of statements made by spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan calling her "the symbol of the infidels and obscenity" and vowing to target her again if she survived - have prompted a widespread backlash. Fifty clerics of Pakistan's Sunni Ittehad Council have issued a fatwa against the gunmen. Demonstrations have been held in several cities. Political parties and the military have both been swept along by the tide of public opinion. Several suspects have been arrested and army chief Ashfaq Pervez Kayani has been unequivocal in his condemnation of both the attack and the extremism that spawned it. It will not be easy to change institutional structures that have seen extremist groups as useful tools, not threats. But Malala's courage has provided the opportunity to do so.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/A-turning-point-A-young-girls-courage-has-given-Pakistan-a-rallying-cry/articleshow/16826994.cms

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I thought this story was pretty interesting considering that there is a backlash against the attackers and even people that view women education wrong consider this as a cowardly attack.  I didn't really know how to approach this story for this site but I wanted to talk about it.  The Taliban are almost impossible to kill by normal war methods.  However, this incident could spring a movement that people finally "wake up".  I can't speak for this side of the world considering it is so different but it is pretty obvious that a young girl that is promoting education among females doesn't deserve to be shot.  The USA could drop as many bombs in the world and not stop the Taliban movement but the Taliban could ruin their movement with a few shots.  Anyone else have any take on this story or implications?

The Taliban never had much support amongst Pakistanis to begin with, but that's largely an ethnic thing (Taliban largely represents the Pashto, a group mostly in Afghanistan, while the "core" Pakistani ethnicities are Punjabi or Rajputani), but it is true that much of the Muslim world does not support the views of the extremists. At most, they sympathize with the extremists simply because they are willing to take action against "oppression" (like Israel, or the machinations of Western corporations, or domestic dictators/corrupt monarchies), but they do not agree with the extent of the extremism.

You can see a lot of it in Mali, where the Extremists are threatening to take over, but the average citizen of Mali simply doesn't agree with them, even if the average Malinese (?) is a Muslim. For one, radical Islam frowns upon music, while Mali is known for its love of music.

It was the Bush Administration's black-and-white "you're with us or you're with the terrorists" policy that really helped the Muslim Extremists, because you're going to side with the freedom fighters, even if they are dangerous and crazy, against the foreign invading Israel-backers, if those were your only choices. Groups like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, who are Islamic and not entirely compatible with Western notions of liberalism (lowercase-l liberalism) are still not going to be "let's blow up these ancient Buddha statues" kind of extremists on the whole.

So do you think we need to stop the drone attacks unless coordinated with the Pakistani military? Drone attacks while semi effective do still cause strife with civilian casualties. I believe the only way for us to succeed is if these nations step up themselves. We should be looking to work closer with the Pakistani military than just doing drone strikes whenever we want. We trained, gave money, and worked with South American countries over the pointless drug war. Why can't we see more cooperation in something that matters more than a drug war?

Well, the problem with the Pakistani military as it stands is that they are untrustworthy partners. We do need to look out for our own security interests first.

Ideally, the Pakistani people will, prompted by this incident and others, help elect a Pakistani government that is not so two-faced about dealing with radical Islam. Of course, it will be hard, because the two-faced-ness is entirely due to fears about India, and the average Pakistani does indeed hate India.

This is a terrible incident for the Taliban. I don't know if their image can be rebuilt from here. The inability to take out a 14 year old girl, makes them look very weak. This could be a major turning point, if this girl lives, I think we will see more people taking a stand.

Bad news for them, but great news for everyone else. Here's to hoping Malala pulls through.

That's definitely what's needed to fight the extremists in these regions. It gives people something to rally around and unlike military actions it won't provide the terrorists with a load of ammo to use on propaganda and recruitment.

What surprises me a little about this is that they rallied pretty quickly around this event. However, extremist have been bombing citizens and killing kids in Iraq and Afghanistan for awhile. Sure the military presence of USA troops allowed them to perhaps blame it on the US being there. That is why I always thought it might be better if just pulled out and left it in a big mess. Sure more people would have died but eventually it would just be them killing each other. I know there are perhaps cases of protests against the suicide bombers/extremist but it doesn't get reported that much.