'Talibans have ruined the reputation of Islam'

CNN:

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... in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore this week, several hundred protesters gathered on a scorching day to take on a very different target: the Taliban.

"I will fight them to my last breath and the last drop of my blood in my body. I'm not scared," vowed newspaper publisher Jugnu Mohsin.

She was leading a crowd of several hundred students, artists, writers and others, chanting "the Taliban is the enemy of Islam" in Urdu.

Public protests against the Taliban started cropping up in various Pakistani cities after a video emerged showing militants publicly flogging a teenage girl. The Taliban's recent declaration that the Pakistani government and judicial system are "unIslamic" has also outraged many educated Pakistanis.

Neha Mehdi moved to Lahore to study. Now, she fears her way of life is being threatened by the Taliban.

"I cannot give up my education, and I cannot give up the way I'm living," the 23-year-old student said. "These Talibans have ruined the reputation of Islam."

"There were threats here also from the Taliban that if we gather they might just bomb us," Mehdi said. Watch how the anti-Taliban movement is growing »

More than 250 miles away, Pakistan's military continued its assault against Taliban militants who want to impose a radical interpretation of Islamic law in the country's northwestern tribal regions.

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The protesters sound like rational people. It is hard to imagine anyone wanting to voluntarily live under despotic religious bigotry. Religious control freaks like the Taliban have always had difficulty tolerating a different point of view. It will take courage for people in Pakistan to stand up to them, but that is how they must be defeated.