Indeed October 9, 2012 was a tragic day for every Pakistani when a 14-year-old girl, Malala Yousafzai became a victim of the fanatical Taliban for the reason that she had demanded her most basic right: the right to get education. Her enlightened thinking, progressive mind and exemplary courage, in fact, frightened the cowardly Talban, therefore they decided to stop the voice of enlightenment with the power of the bullet. Yes, it was a tragic incident for every Pakistani and certainly for every compassionate human being all over the globe, but the incident at the same time has given us an opportunity to stand up united against the nefarious designs of the Taliban. Civil society, media and the general public reacted sharply against this barbaric act of terrorism, which has jolted the Pakistani nation. On the one hand, when the entire Pakistani nation stands united and unanimous to take action against the Taliban, our religious leaders, particularly the ones who belong to a certain school of thought, do not seem to be in a mood to condemn the heinous incident the way they should. Many ifs and buts can be seen in their statements while condemning the shooting of Malala. Some religious leaders have come up with the most outrageous statement that the Taliban are not involved in the said incident; rather, the attack was staged by the US spy agency, CIA. The Pakistani nation is unable to understand the morbidity of their religious leaders. Is it not amazing that the attackers themselves have claimed the responsibility of the incident but thanks to their inbuilt prejudices, these so-called religious leaders are trying to give the attackers a clean chit. According to confirmed sources, some renowned religious leaders such as Maulana Fazlur-Rehman and Qazi Husain Ahmad have approached the Taliban in an attempt to persuade them to withdraw their earlier statement through which they accepted the responsibility for the incident. Unfortunately, there is a sect of people who are fabricating and disseminating different stories through SMS and social websites to hide the truth. According to one, the most ludicrous story, Malala has not been injured; rather, the whole drama was staged to malign the ‘pious Taliban’ who are struggling to establish a truly Islamic state. In the follow up of their claim of being responsible for this incident, the Taliban are now threatening anchors and print media personalities for highlighting the Malala incident, but our religious scholars and their followers have yet to see the involvement of the Taliban in the said incident. If for a while we accept these nonsensical arguments then what was the purpose of having claimed the responsibility of the incident by the Taliban spokesman, Ihsan Ullah Ihsan? Hats off to the CIA who has one of its agents appointed as the spokesman of the Taliban. It is certainly time to think, time to act, time to stand united and time to come out of these cock-and-bull stories. Let us trace the pages of history and we will find hundreds of such examples where Muslims killed their brethren in faith in the name of jihad and Islam. Let us ask them: who killed the Second Caliph of Muslims, Hazrat Umar? Who killed the third and fourth Caliphs of Muslims brutally? Who killed Hazrat Ayesha, the beloved wife of the Prophet (PBUH), and who killed the grandson of the Prophet (PBUH) Imam Hussain? All of them were killed brutally by their brethren in faith, in the name of Islam. Moreover, we the Muslims always claim that the era of our first four caliphs was really the golden era of our history, but let us be true with ourselves and history; three out of the first four caliphs were assassinated by Muslims themselves. Was there any US at that time that instigated Muslims to kill their caliphs? Was there any conspiracy of CIA behind the shameful war of Karbala? We can keep on quoting many such incidents that will prove our sick mentality of blaming others for our wrongdoings. On the political scenario, it is being said that the Zardari regime is looking at this incident as an opportunity to escape from the general elections expected to be held in March 2013. According to sources, many hawks in the power corridors are trying to persuade the political and military leadership to launch a military operation against the Taliban on the pattern of the Swat operation. However, I believe that before launching any such operation, our policy makers have to ensure that not even a single terrorist be able to escape. The operation should be a decisive one; the entire media, civil society, the public should stand with their army in the battle against the barbarism of the Taliban and of course, the political government should not use this opportunity to postpone the forthcoming general election. Let us decide to wage a four-front war against terrorists and pledge to fight against terrorism till the elimination of the last terrorist. It is time to pounder why Muslims, particularly Pakistani Muslims, are being associated with terrorism all over the world. A few days ago, the French interior minister came up with a harsh statement threatening Muslims to remain peaceful, failing which they will be expelled from France. Let us think when we will mature as a nation. When will we start understanding things rationally? When will we be able to understand the real teachings of our religion? When will we come out from the clutches of our so-called religious leaders and their morbid believers? When will we stop making Islam a scapegoat for our political motives? When will we come up with courage to call a spade a spade? When will we try to learn the lesson from our history? When will we stop cursing others for our backwardness? aThe writer is a university teacher and an educationist. He is a freelance columnist and can be reached at sheheryar.ahmad@gmail.com