Education activist and terror attack survivor Malala Yousafzai has put US presidential candidate Donald Trump back in his place and provided food for thought for any other politicians attacking people of the Muslim faith.

“The more you speak about Islam and against all Muslims, the more terrorists we create,” she said in an interview with Channel 4 in the UK.

Education activist and terror attack survivor Malala Yousafzai

Ms Yousafzai, who last year became the youngest ever Nobel Laureate when she won the Nobel Peace prize, was asked about the “wild things being said about Islam and Muslims,” such as Trump’s call to stop all Muslims from entering the United States.

“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. It will radicalise more terrorists,” she said.

In another interview, Ms Yousafzai called Trump’s comments “tragic” and “full of hated, full of this ideology of being discriminative towards others.”

Ms Yousafzai was shot in the head and nearly killed in 2012 because she went to school and advocated for girls to receive an education. Despite the attempt on her life, she continues to promote these causes.

She said education, not discrimination, was the key to stopping terror.

“If we want to end terrorism we need to bring quality education so we defeat the mindset of terrorism and mentality of hatred,” Ms Yousafzai said at a ceremony in England marking the first anniversary of a Taliban assault on a school in Pakistan which left 134 children dead.

Ms Yousafzai’s father Ziauddin also attacked Donald Trump for his anti-Muslim immigration comments.

“We have to be together to disown and to isolate all kinds of Donald Trumps, and people like the Taliban… or Boko Haram or ISIS – people who spread hate and discrimination,” Mr Yousafzai said.

“We have to isolate them, because this world belongs to us and we belong to it, and we need to have harmony in our societies and our countries,” he said.

This was not the first time Donald Trump has put his foot in his mouth.

Five Trump faux pas:

Mexicans

After the Republicans 2012 loss to President Barack Obama, the party went through a period of soul-searching and determined that candidates needed to stop alienating Latino voters if they wanted to recapture the White House.

Trump promptly accused the Mexican government of sending its criminals and rapists across the border and proposed building a massive border wall and deporting every person in the country illegally.

Racial violence

Two Boston brothers who brutally beat a sleeping homeless Hispanic man later allegedly justified the attack by saying Trump “was right” about deporting “all these illegals.” Before he eventually denounced the incident, Trump’s initial response was: “I will say, the people that are following me are very passionate. They love this country. They want this country to be great again. And they are very passionate.” 

John McCain

Senator John McCain spent five and a half years as a prisoner of war after his plane was shot down over North Vietnam. He refused to leave, ahead of his fellow prisoners, when given the chance.

Trump, who has accused McCain of doing too little to help veterans, knocked the senator last July, first disputing that he was a hero, then declaring: “He’s a war hero ’cause he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured, OK?” Trump avoided service in Vietnam because he enrolled in college.

Megyn Kelly

Trump was furious at Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly for asking him about his history of insulting comments aimed at women during the first Republican nomination debate, and he has not forgiven her since.

Trump repeatedly has questioned Kelly’s professionalism and went as far as to tell CNN that she had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever” during the debate.

Flip flopping 

Flip-flopping is trouble for most politicians, but Trump seems to have done it with impunity. He has shrugged off his old support for abortion rights and a single-payer health care system, and his former identification with the Democratic Party. Trump said conservative darling Ronald Reagan was also once a Democrat and that he shouldn’t be held accountable for past views.

Skye Doyle
AMES Australia Staff Writer