Originally published in News & Observer
Many differences, but linked by a Nobel Prize”: Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi won the 2014 Noble Peace Prize for championing the importance of education.
Along with billions of Muslims around the world, I congratulate this incredible achievement. In light of all the violence and discord that has arisen in the Middle East, it is beautiful to see the emergence of such valor by a practicing Muslim.
Malala embodies all the positive qualities of the true Islam. She joins the ranks of the only other Pakistani Nobel Laureate, Dr. Abdus Salam, who won the prize in 1979 in the field of physics. As Malala is today, Salam was a tremendous advocate for education for all.
Unfortunately, as an Ahmadi Muslim in Pakistan, he was persecuted in the same manner in which Malala is today, by extremists who distort the true teachings of Islam.
