“It is a religious thing. Do you want to change religion?” said metro user Ibrahim Hassan in response to the “White Coats” campaign. “You only listen to what the West is saying.”
Establishment media treatments of female genital mutilation routinely insist that it has nothing to do with Islam, but actually FGM is mandated in Islamic law: “Circumcision is obligatory (for every male and female) (by cutting off the piece of skin on the glans of the penis of the male, but circumcision of the female is by cutting out the bazr ‘clitoris’ [this is called khufaadh ‘female circumcision’]).” — Umdat al-Salik e4.3, translated by Mark Durie, The Third Choice, p. 64
Why is it obligatory? Because Muhammad is held to have said so: “Abu al- Malih ibn Usama’s father relates that the Prophet said: ‘Circumcision is a law for men and a preservation of honour for women.’” — Ahmad Ibn Hanbal 5:75
“Narrated Umm Atiyyah al-Ansariyyah: A woman used to perform circumcision in Medina. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said to her: ‘Do not cut severely as that is better for a woman and more desirable for a husband.’” — Abu Dawud 41:5251
That hadith is classified as weak, but this one is classified as sahih (reliable): “Aishah narrated: ‘When the circumcised meets the circumcised, then indeed Ghusl is required. Myself and Allah’s Messenger did that, so we performed Ghusl.’” — Jami` at-Tirmidhi 108
If Muhammad had the genitals of his favorite wife, Aisha, mutilated, that is a strong endorsement of the practice from the man who is an “excellent example” (Qur’an 33:21) for Muslims.
Why does it matter whether or not FGM is Islamic? Because the practice will never be eradicated if its root causes are not confronted. As long as those Muslims continue to believe that Allah and Muhammad want it done, for some that will override all other considerations.
“Doctors in Egypt launch anti-genital-cutting campaign after girl dies,” Reuters, February 12, 2020:
Doctors in Egypt have taken time out of their surgeries for a campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of female genital mutilation (FGM) after the death of a 12-year-old girl, saying they do not want their white coats “stained with blood”.
Genital cutting of girls was banned in Egypt in 2008, but it remains persistent. A 2016 survey by the UN Children’s Fund showed 87% of women and girls aged 15 to 49 had undergone the procedure.
The campaign, entitled “White Coats”, saw posters with the slogans “No to FGM” and “FGM is a Crime” put up at a Cairo metro station, where doctors in white coats gave out leaflets about the dangers of the practice….
Last month, Egyptian authorities arrested a retired doctor on charge of carrying out illegal FGM surgery and causing the death of a 12-year-old girl. The girl’s parents were also arrested.
All have been released, but investigations are continuing and campaigners against FGM say they expect them to face trial.
The ritual is underpinned by the desire to control female sexuality, but is often justified for cultural or religious reasons in conservative societies.
Women and children’s rights groups in Egypt say the ban has not been well enforced and that much of society is permissive of FGM, which is widely practised by Christians and Muslims.
The majority of FGM procedures are carried out by doctors and nurses at private clinics, with the rest done at home, according to the Egypt Demographic and Health Survey of 2014.
“It is a religious thing. Do you want to change religion?” said metro user Ibrahim Hassan in response to the “White Coats” campaign. “You only listen to what the West is saying.”
In response, Fakhr El Deen told Hassan that FGM had no basis in religion and was not taught in medical schools in Egypt.
mortimer says
MUSLIMS CANNOT BRING THEMSELVES TO ADMIT THAT MOHAMMED WAS WRONG, because their faith in Islam would then collapse. But Mo was wrong about FGM.
FGM is Islamic, beheading is Islamic; hand-chopping and stoning are also Islamic.
They are barbaric practices that the modern world has criminalized.
Jihad is Islamic. Jihad is not even authorized within Islamic countries. Jihadists are hunted and punished by other Muslims. Many Western countries have criminalized jihad as ‘terrorism’.
If we may criminalize hand-chopping, stoning, beheading and wife-beating and jihad, then we may criminalize FGM as well.
The world should be an FGM-FREE ZONE.
elee says
+1. Most of the things Muslims propose to do to the bodies of others are worthy of prohibition.
gravenimage says
So true elee–FGM, forced marriage, child marriage, wife beating, flogging “blasphemers” and those who take a sip of alcohol, the rape of Infidel women, “Honor Killing”, attacks on dhimmis, homosexual rape intended to humiliate, beheadings, and the stoning of women.
Islam is based on the violent abuse of the bodies of those deemed in one way or another to be “insufficiently Islamic”.
Mike Stevens says
The argument that FGM is somehow acceptable and should continue because it’s a religious or cultural thing is absurd. Human sacrifices and burning witches were once the religious and cultural norms in many societies, but it didn’t make them right. As with this primitive, barbaric practice – it belongs in the Dark Ages and is the culture of savages. It has no place in the civilised world.
Walter Sieruk says
This cruel, brutal and vicious Islamic tradition of female butchery which some Muslims so inappropriately call “female circumcision’ has spread like an infectious disease , or a plague , even to Western nations
This heinous Islamic custom of misogyny has been exposed in the book by Brigitte Gabriel which is entitled THEY MUST BE STOPPED. For on page 178 it reveals to the reader that “One of the most devastating practices to young girls of the Islamic world is female genital mutilation. Young girls have their clitoris removed without anesthesia…”
Indeed, they must be stopped !
Jedothek says
Far too much evil is defended on grounds of religious freedom. Laws against kinds of worship are unjust; but religion tradition cannot justify something that is wrong on secular grounds, e.g. mayhem .
ntesdorf says
“It is a religious thing. Do you want to change religion?” In the case that the ‘religion’ is Islam, the answer must always be ‘Yes!”.
Peter WF says
There are a number of religious modifications made to the helplessly small humans.
FGM and circumcision are 2. Note that in the LGTB etc. there is no representation for the FGM’d or the C’d. These are un represented to be pedantic to the left.
There have now been a number of cases of diseases passed from rabbis to newly circumcised infants through the transfer of bodily fluids..Occasionally resulting in the infant’s death. God’s will I suppose? Do your own searches before you comment negatively to the above.
I can only describe what goes on in the jewish male circumcision “ceremony” as sanctioned pedaphilia.
elee says
Yes its barbaric inhumane dangerous and inexcusable. OTOH how many millions of Muslim women are willing to fight to the death to perpetuate their oppression? Such are the wages of righteousness.
James says
FGM is as religious as widow burning in India. The British colonialists did not hesitate to stop this brutal practice. Our leaders today have become timid and cowardly and hide behind “You have to respect other peoples’ beliefs!” Why respect practices that are cruel and inhumane, just behind it hides behind a religious veil as a shield and defense?
OLD GUY says
Islam always LIES it”s part of their religious belief. Muhammad was the biggest deceiver and lier ever, that’s how islam has spread throughout the world.
Matthieu Baudin says
To have an active campaign against FGM (female phallic castration) in Egypt and to have it led by Medical Professionals is a tremendous development. If only some of this courage were contagious and would spread to the West where ‘turning a blind eye’ and ‘wilful inaction’ by health professionals is the most common approach to this crime.
gravenimage says
Egypt: Doctors start campaign against FGM, objector says “It is a religious thing. Do you want to change religion?”
……………….
Yet so many Muslim apologists will tell you this has nothing to do with Islam…