Malala and the Nobel laureates

"I do not even hate the Talib who shot me. Even if there is a gun in my hand and he stands in front of me, I would not shoot him. This is the compassion I have learnt from Muhammad - the prophet of mercy, Jesus Christ and Lord Buddha. This is the legacy of change that I have inherited from Marin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. This is the philosophy of non-violence that I have learnt from Gandhiji, Bacha Khan and Mother Teresa.
"This is what my soul is telling me, be peaceful and love everyone...we realise the importance of light when we see darkness. We realise the importance of our voice when we are silenced."
These were the thoughts of Malala Yousufzai that she articulated during a special session of the UN on July 12, 2013 to mark her 16th birthday which was declared 'Malala Day'. But the child would have nothing of this and said, "Malala Day is not my day. Today is the day of ever woman, every boy and every girl who have raised their voice for their rights."
The assembly chamber was packed to capacity and her speech was interrupted many times by thunderous standing ovations. Her words were pregnant with meaning and purpose. They will always exercise an imperishable authority over the minds of those who can discriminate between right and wrong.
This was the opinion that was conveyed to me last year by a former European ambassador to Pakistan who explained, "In saying all this, I am merely paraphrasing the writings of a famous jurist of your great country. Malala Day is not only a befitting tribute to this remarkable teenager who has the potential of a future Nobel laureate, but it is also the international community's way of honouring Pakistan in its struggle to combat the ideology of extremism."
But the honour was not even acknowledged by the leadership of Pakistan. In fact the event was downplayed and brushed under the rug. The chief minister of Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif commented condescendingly on Twitter, "Good speech by Malala! Could have been better - seemed to be written for global consumption."
Shahbaz obviously has high standards, and, one wonders how he rated his own brother's performance at the UN last month. When Nawaz Sharif spoke his voice resonated through the spacious but virtually empty hall of the General Assembly. The few delegates that were present heard but did not heed what the third-time prime minister of Pakistan had to say. At the end of the address they applauded politely, thankful that their ordeal of having to sit through the unimaginative reiterations of Islamabad's foreign policy priorities was over.
In contrast, Malala's speech has had an enduring impact worldwide. On October 10, when the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize had been awarded to Malala and Kailash Satyarthi of India, I received an email from a former Russian deputy foreign minister saying, "We in Moscow still remember her words at the UN last year 'This is what my soul is telling me, be peaceful and love everyone.' Many of us were sure that within three years she would become the youngest ever Nobel laureate...This is a triumph not only for Pakistan but for the entire Islamic world."
He was not exaggerating. As the youngest Nobel Prize winner at the age of 17, Malala has established a world record which will probably never be surpassed. The person who comes anywhere close to this is Sir William Lawrence Bragg, who at 25 was awarded the physics prize in 1915; in 1907 Rudyard Kipling became the youngest winner of the prize for literature when he was 42; in chemistry it was Frederic Joliot in 1935 when he was 35; in medicine the youngest recipient was Frederic G Banting in 1923 at the age of 32; and in economics (the award was established in 1968 and endowed by the Swedish central bank, Siveriges Riksbank, on its 300th anniversary) it was Kenneth Joseph Arrow in 1972 but he was already 51 at the time.
The performance of Muslims worldwide insofar as winning the Nobel Prize is concerned has been pathetic if not downright disgraceful. This stands out even more when compared to the Jewish world. Since 1901, when the first Nobel Prize was awarded, there have been more than 850 laureates. Of these a stunning 194 winners or 23 per cent have been Jews even though they comprise a paltry 0.196 per cent of the global population.
Overall they have won 41 per cent of the Nobel awards in economics, 28 per cent in medicine, 26 per cent in physics, 19 per cent in chemistry, 13 per cent in literature and, 9.0 per cent of the peace prizes. This is what a mere 13.9 million Jews of the world (5.0 million less than the population of Karachi) have achieved.
In contrast, the 1.6 billion Muslims who constitute 23 per cent of the human race have only 11 Nobel laureates. Of these, seven were recipients of the Peace Prize and include: (i) Anwar Sadat (1978), Egypt; (ii) Yasser Arafat (1994), Palestine; (iii) Shirin Ebadi (2003), Iran; (iv) Muhammad El Baradei (2005), Egypt; (v) Muhammad Younus (2006), Bangladesh; (vi) Tawakel Kamran (2011), Yemen; and (vii) Malala Yousufzai (2014), Pakistan.
The Egyptian, Naguib Mahfouz won the literature prize in 1988 as did Turkey's Orhan Pamuk in 2006. Of the remaining two Abdus Salam of Pakistan was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1979 whereas Ahmed Zewail, an Egyptian-American, won the chemistry prize in 1999.
Of the 11 Nobel Prize winners from the Islamic world, six have been victimised in their own countries. Anwar Sadat was assassinated in Cairo during a military parade by fundamentalist army officers on October 06, 1981 following a fatwa (decree) issued by the so-called 'blind sheikh,' Omar Abdel-Rahman.
After the publication of his novel, Children of Gebelawi, Naguib Mafouz received death threats for alleged blasphemy from religious extremists including Omar Abdel-Rahman. In 1994 he was stabbed in the neck outside his home in Cairo. The 82-year-old existentialist author narrowly survived the assassination attempt but the nerves in his right hand were permanently damaged and he could no longer write for more than a few minutes a day. But the grand old man refused to abandon his country despite the continuation of the threats and eventually died on August 30, 2006 at the age of 95.
The lawyer Shirin Ebadi has been in exile in the UK since June 2009. A few months earlier she issued a statement in Tehran saying that the threats to her life had intensified. Her crime was that she had defended Iran's minority Bahai community and had raised human rights issues.
Bangladesh has also treated its only Nobel laureate, Muhammad Yunus, shabbily. He has been pilloried by the Sheikh Hasina government on unproven charges of corruption. Seldom has there been a more brazen example of political victimisation.
However, it is Pakistan that has excelled in bigotry. Although the world recognises Abdus Salam as one of the greatest scientists of his times, the land of his birth, which he loved so dearly, excommunicated him and his community. He died in Oxford on November 21, 1996, and, as per his last wish his mortal remains were interred near his hometown in Pakistan. But even in death there was no peace. His grave was desecrated by fanatics, an act far removed from the teachings of the last of the prophets.
Malala, the recipient of 35 international awards including the Nobel Prize, is globally recognised as a child prodigy, but not in her own country. Here she has been maligned as an American agent, and, has been viscously accused of working against Islam.
This is what I was told in the past week by supposedly enlightened people who quoted extracts from Malala's autobiography. I reminded them that her entire struggle was founded on the belief: "One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world." When they were asked whether or not this was the essence of the very first words with which the revelation of the Quran began, there was silence.

The writer is the publisher of Islamamd-based Criterion Quarterly.
 iftimurshed@gmail.com