Malala Yousafzai: Donald Trump's Anti-Muslim Rhetoric is 'Full of Hatred'
Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai condemned Donald Trump's call for a ban on Muslim immigrants from entering the U.S., arguing that his xenophobic rhetoric will only incite more anti-American sentiment among Muslims.
In wake of the recent terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, by two radical Islamic extremists, Trump has proposed temporary restrictions to bar Muslims from entering the U.S. until authorities could "figure out" Muslim attitudes towards Americans, reports BBC. He has also called for increased surveillance of mosques.
His comments, however, drew widespread criticism from both Democrats and Republicans. Now, Yousafzai, a world renowned girls' education advocate, is speaking out against the GOP front-runner as well.
"Well, that's really tragic that you hear these comments which are full of hatred, full of this ideology of being discriminative towards others," said the 18-year-old Pakistani activist in an interview with Agence France-Presse.
Yousafzai made the comments during a memorial ceremony held on Tuesday to honor the one year anniversary of a Taliban attack at a Peshawar, Pakistan school that killed 150 people, including 134 children.
Her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, a Pakistani diplomat and education advocate, also slammed the billionaire businessman during the event, saying, "It will be very unfair, very unjust that we associate 1.6 billion with a few terrorist organizations."
According to Yousafzai, Trump's anti-Muslim speech will lead to more terrorism.
"The more you speak about Islam and against all Muslims, the more terrorists we create," she told Britain's Channel 4. "So it's important that whatever politicians say, whatever the media say, they should be really, really careful about it. If your intention is to stop terrorism, do not try to blame the whole population of Muslims for it because it cannot stop terrorism."
The Pakistani campaigner also stressed the need for quality education around the world to "defeat the terrorist mindset."
"A gun can kill a terrorist, but it will not kill his thinking. The only thing that will change his mindset is education," she told the BBC at the event.
In 2012, Yousafzai, was shot in the head by a member of the Taliban for campaigning for girls' rights to an education.
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