The Nobel Committee finally gets one right.
The ferocious intellect and powerful soul of Malala Yousafzai may inhabit the body of a little girl, but she’s a remarkable young woman who is wise beyond her years.
The paradox this raises is this: Sometimes, it takes conservative methods for liberal ideas to prevail. In today’s polarized America, it’s hard to build a constituency around that.
In the Muslim world, “culture war” isn’t a just a reporter’s hyperbole; it’s a war. It’s dreadful, messy, and complicated, and right now, it’s not going our way. Often, the forces that represent the best realistic alternative to ISIS, Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and the Taliban come with their own distasteful histories and hatreds. Winning this culture war will require many different strategies — most of which don’t involve any use of military force at all — to suit the human and physical terrain where it’s being fought. But by now, it should be clear that the war for Islam can’t be ignored away, and if Malala loses her war, humanity will lose, too.