Tag Archives: female genital mutilation

UK: The Crisis of Female Genital Mutilation

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???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????by Soeren Kern:

Despite these laws, no one has ever been prosecuted for performing FGM. Victims are often afraid to speak out for fear of physical abuse or death threats, some involving paid hitmen.

British authorities are redoubling their fight against the spiraling problem of female genital mutilation (FGM) after a weekly primetime television show broadcast by the BBC forced the previously “taboo” subject into mainstream debate.

FGM is endemic in Muslim-majority countries across Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Three million girls between infancy and age 15 are subject to FGM every year, and it is believed that 140 million women worldwide are suffering from the lifelong consequences of the practice.

FGM has emerged as a major problem in Europe due to mass immigration. The European Parliament estimates that 500,000 girls and women in the European Union are living with FGM, and every year another 180,000 girls in Europe are at risk of being “cut.”

Britain has the highest levels of FGM in Europe. According to a government-funded study published in 2007, at least 66,000 women and girls in Britain have had the procedure performed on them, and more than 20,000 girls under the age of 15 are currently at risk.

These figures, however, may be only the tip of the iceberg. A 2011 Department of Health policy paper warns that “it is possible that, due to population growth and immigration from practicing countries…FGM is significantly more prevalent than these figures suggest.”

FGM is thought to be common in Britain among immigrant groups from Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Kurdistan, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Northern Sudan, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Yemen.

The Times of London has reported that circumcisers — also known as “house doctors” because they conduct the procedure in private homes — are often flown to Britain from Africa and the Middle East to carry out the mutilations.

Alternatively, families who have immigrated to Britain from countries where FGM is practiced may send their daughters back to those countries to undergo FGM there, ostensibly under the guise of visiting relatives.

According to The Guardian, the six-week-long school summer holiday in Britain is the most dangerous time of the year for these girls. It is a convenient time to carry out the procedure because the girls need several weeks to heal before returning to school.

Sometimes immigrants living in other European countries even send their daughters to Britain to have them mutilated there. In an interview with the BBC, Isabelle Gillette-Faye, an anti-FGM activist in France, recounts the story of two little girls about to board a train for London.

Gillette-Faye says: “It was a Friday. We heard just in time. They had tickets for Saturday. A family member tipped us off. We told the police and they were stopped from making the journey.” The parents were warned that if they would go ahead with the mutilations and be found out, they would be imprisoned for up to 13 years.

“In England,” she added, “you are very respectful of your immigrants. It is very different in France. They have to integrate and they have to obey our laws. We simply will not tolerate this practice.”

In Bristol, a city in southwest England with a sizeable immigrant community, it is believed that some 2,000 girls are at risk of “FGM parties.” According to the BBC, “They cut them all together, as a group, because it is cheaper and quicker that way. At first the girls are all excited because it’s a party, until they realize what is going to happen, and then they get frightened. It’s done by the elder women, or the Imam, whoever is expert at cutting.”

FGM has been a crime in Britain for more than 25 years. It was made a criminal offense by the Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985. That Act was superseded by the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 and (in Scotland) by the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation (Scotland) Act 2005, both of which also introduce extraterritoriality. Taking a British citizen or permanent resident abroad for the purpose of FGM is a criminal offense whether or not it is lawful in the country to which the girl is taken.

Despite these laws — which carry a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison for anyone convicted of carrying out FGM or helping it to take place — no one in Britain has ever been prosecuted for performing it.

Read more at Gatestone Institute

 

Rape and the Islamic Doctrine That Allows It

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Egyptian woman

Historically and juridically, Islam sanctions FGM for Muslim females and rape and sexual slavery of non-Muslim females. Westerners determinedly avoid the topic altogether.

By Clare Lopez:

The first time that many Americans and others in the West became aware of the extent of the mistreatment of  women in Muslim-majority countries was on February 11, 2011, the night that Hosni Mubarak’s government fell in Cairo and CBS News correspondent, Lara Logan, was brutally sexually assaulted in Tahrir Square.

Yet, those already familiar with the Egyptian street know that the brazen sexual harassment of women has been a feature of public life there for a long time. After all, this is an overwhelmingly Muslim country where statistics show more than 90 per cent of women undergo genital mutilation (Female Genital Mutilation-FGM), whose fundamental purpose is to destroy female sexuality—not only so that men may more easily control their own women but in an attempt to remove ostensible “provocation” from men who are raised from infancy in an environment of permissiveness to believe they are superior to women.

And while Western feminist groups determinedly avoid the topic altogether, international organizations charged with studying the treatment of women around the world typically take pains to avoid any insinuation that either FGM or rape of women and girls has anything to do with Islam. Unfortunately, both do. Doctrinally, historically and juridically, Islam sanctions FGM for Muslim females and the rape and sexual slavery of non-Muslim females.

Read more at The Clarion Project

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Amnesty Int’l: Don’t Call Female Genital Mutilation “Barbaric”

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281851582_221142755001_100723FGM-3622281By Abigail Esman:

Recently, I penned an article about  an Amnesty International initiative: an art project for which the organization had commissioned artists and designers to address the devastating problem of female genital mutilation, or FGM – using 8,000 paper rose petals.  The petals had been gathered as part of a petition action to bring attention to – and to end – the practice of FGM, and were each signed by a member of the public who participated in the petition.  It was a laudable project, and I said so.

Amnesty responded with great appreciation for my story – but took exception to one detail.  I had  called FGM “barbaric,” and, said an Amnesty official, “we try not to use this word.”  In an e-mail, she explained, “The use of the word ‘barbaric’ suggests that the people who do this are less than human, which isn’t so because they are being led by social pressure which is what needs to be fought. So we avoid using this word to not judge the people.”

Overlooking the fact that “barbaric,” which means simply “uncultured,” “uncivilized,” or “uneducated,” does not quite suggest “less than human,” I could not help but wonder about the “not to judge them” part.  After all, if you set out to change a thing – a behavior, a place, a custom  (and especially if you set out to end it) – haven’t you already implicitly expressed a judgment?  And how is calling a custom, a practice, “barbaric,” conferring a judgment on the people who perform it?

This is the question that occurred to me soon after this exchange as I read about a similar situation in Canada, where, once again, the term “barbaric,” used to describe FGM – as well as honor killings – came under fire.  According to a report in Front Page, “Jinny Sims, the immigration critic of the opposition New Democratic Party of Canada, suggested the word ‘barbaric’ might ‘stigmatize some cultures.’”

Now, perhaps it’s just me, but I can’t think of many things moreundemocratic than censorship of language; but that, apparently, is precisely what the Canadian “New Democratic Party” seeks.

Hearing of Ms. Sims’ remarks, I was reminded of the words of another, wiser politician: former British Home Secretary Michael Howard, who, in defense of artistic freedom, once remarked, “We are uniquely fortunate in these  islands to have the English language. It is no accident that we have had and do have such a profusion of brilliant poets, playwrights, novelist and songwriters.

We must never allow the richness of that language to be diluted by bending the knee to the tyranny of political correctness.”  [Emphasis added, A.E.]

What wonderful words.

Read more at The Clarion Project

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Canadian Left Calls for ‘Neutrality’ on Honor Killings & Female Genital Mutilation

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clitorectomyBy :

Cultural relativism has reached a new point of absurdity in Canada when the “barbarity” of female genital mutilation and honor killings is questioned and becomes a controversy.

A recently introduced manual by the Government of Canada intended to teach newcomers about Canadian values and Canadian society has been met with ongoing hostility from left-wing Canadians and politicians over the choice of words in describing female genital mutilation and honor killings. Jinny Sims, the immigration critic of the opposition New Democratic Party of Canada, suggested the word “barbaric” might “stigmatize some cultures.”

Aside from official protestations, everyone can imagine the type of cultural relativist rhetoric that has been used to attack the Conservative government for releasing this guide. The blogosphere has been filled with “liberal-minded” Canadians continuing in the same vein as Ms. Sims, suggesting the term “barbaric” is somehow discriminatory or offensive to a particular group. However, reasoned thought on the matter should conclude on the exact opposite; that it is offensive to those forced to endure such ordeals to call them anything but barbaric. Unfortunately, sensitivity towards this group (as per usual) is ignored.

Taking up the relativist banner was also none other than Justin Trudeau, front-runner for leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada, and son of the infamous Canadian Prime Minister who brought multiculturalist policy to Canada. He attacked the Conservatives for using the term “barbaric,” and suggested that the term was a “pejorative” and that “there needs to be a little bit of an attempt at responsible neutrality.”

Read more at Front Page

Also see:

Justin Trudeau’s Islamist Revival (counterjihadreport.com)

Female Genital Mutilation on Rise in U.S.

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images (6)by:  Clare Lopez:

e4.3 Circumcision is obligatory (O: for both men and women). For men it consists of removing the prepuce from the penis, and for women, removing the prepuce.(Ar. Bazr) of the clitoris (n: not the clitoris itself, as some mistakenly assert). (A: Hanbalis hold that circumcision of women is not obligatory but sunna, while Hanafis consider it a mere courtesy to the husband.) – Reliance of the Traveller: A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law

As the population of immigrants to the United States increases from countries where Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is practiced, so does the practice of cutting. This is the finding of a new study published by the New York-based non-profit organization,Sanctuary for Families, which specializes in gender-based violence.

The study, “Female Genital Mutilation in the United States: Protecting Girls and Women in the U.S. From FGM and Vacation Cutting,” relied on statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and data from the 2000 U.S. census.

Both CDC and the census appear to have arrived at their conclusions by extrapolating from the numbers of immigrants who come from countries documented by the World Health Organization as places where FGM is common, in order to arrive at a number of women and girls in the U.S. deemed “at risk” for FGM, either in the U.S. itself or while on “vacations” to home countries of origin.

Read more at RadicalIslam.org

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John Kerry Should Ask President Morsi About Genital Mutilation

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images (6)By David P. Goldman:

If the State Department wants to advance the rights of Egyptian women, why not ask President Mohammed Morsi to support a ban on female genital mutilation, a horrific form of violence perpetrated on more than 90% of Egyptian women, according to the World Health Organization? The point of the mutilation is to destroy a woman’s capacity for sexual pleasure the better to ensure her marital fidelity. Deposed President Mubarak and his wife campaigned against it: not so President Morsi. As the blog “An Arab Citizen” reported last year:

Speaking now on Egypt’s CBC Channel in a “meet your presidential candidate” type of event, the FJP/MB’s Mohammed Morsy was asked by a female doctor and panelist what he thought about recent calls to apparently “revise” the law banning FGM/Female Circumcision in Egypt. The candidate embarked on a long and vague answer which left a few, including the doctor herself, uncertain to a considerable extent as to his concise statement of position. But most of the people I have spoken to agree that the candidate seems to be suggesting that it should be the prerogative of the family to decide if they want their daughter to undergo it or not. When pressed further, he said it was not the role of the president to be involved in such details.

The Mubarak government banned the practice in June 2007, to little effect. The Muslim Brotherhood’s Morsi refused to support the ban. The most prominent Muslim Brotherhood cleric, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, defended a surreal “moderate” position of removing part but not all of the clitoris in a fatwa published on the website Islam Online:

The most moderate opinion and the most likely one to be correct is in favor of practicing circumcision in the moderate Islamic way indicated in some of the Prophet’s hadiths—even though such hadiths are not confirmed to be authentic. It is reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to a midwife: “Reduce the size of the clitoris but do not exceed the limit, for that is better for her health and is preferred by husbands.” The hadith indicates that circumcision is better for a woman’s health and it enhances her conjugal relation with her husband. It’s noteworthy that the Prophet’s saying “do not exceed the limit” means do not totally remove the clitoris.

There is no greater right than the right not to be killed or mutilated, as 90% of Egyptian women have been. Is there a more heinous or systematic violation of human rights anywhere in the world than the genital mutilation of tens of millions of women? And is there a more revolting example of human rights violation in the name of religion than the declaration of the Muslim Brotherhood’s leading authority, Sheikh Qaradawi? Why doesn’t Secretary Kerry say something about this? And why don’t American feminists demand that he raise the issue? Does cultural sensitivity trump the most fundamental right of women?

Read more at PJ Media

 

Shocking Facts on Female Genital Mutilation

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fgmby: Abigail R. Esman:

Last fall, Mohamed Kandeel, a physician and member of the Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research – a partner of the World Health Organization (WHO) – published an article in which he argued for the legalization of the procedure widely called “female genital mutilation” (FGM).

His reasoning?  Because it is practiced by Muslim cultures throughout Africa and much of the Middle East, and the Muslim community, he noted, “is the second largest in the world.”

Kandeel’s ideas may be all wrong, but his facts are shockingly correct: The WHO estimates that between 100-140 million women and girls have undergone FGM, with millions more likely to be victimized, and the overwhelming majority of these women and girls are Muslim.  (FGM does take place in non-Muslim cultures in Africa and among Coptic Christians in Egypt, but it is by no measure as widespread.)

Read more at Radical Islam

Abigail R. Esman, an award-winning writer based in New York and the Netherlands, is the author, most recently, of Radical State: How Jihad Is Winning Over Democracy in the West

 

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Bulletin of the Oppression of Women

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Political Islam:

July 4, 2012 Egypt   A student’s boyfriend was stabbed to death when Islamists found them in a public   park together.

July 5, 2012 Egypt     The first Egyptian satellite channel completely operated by women wearing the   full face veil (niqab) is set to be launched 20 July, which will coincide with   the first day of the holy month of Ramadan.

Egypt   (h/t to RaymondIbrahim)   What is being dubbed as Egypt’s “first sex-slave marriage” took place   mere days after the Muslim Brotherhood’s Muhammad Morsi was made president.   Before making the woman, who had a non-Egyptian accent, repeat the Koran’s Surat   al-Ikhlas after him, instead of saying the customary “I marry myself to   you,” the woman said “I enslave myself to you,” and kissed him   in front of an applauding audience.

July 7, 2012 Afghanistan   (ht/ to JihadWatch)   A member of the Taliban shot dead a woman accused of adultery in front of a   cheering crowd of men near Kabul.

July 13, 2012 India   A predominantly Muslim village in India has banned “love marriages”   in addition barring women under 40 from shopping alone and using cell phones   in public
July 14, 2012 Britain   A Sudanese asylum seeker who raped a 12-year-old girl has been allowed to remain   in Britain – after a judge ruled it would breach his human rights to deport   him.

July 16, 2012 Canada   Canadian laws should be changed to require women to “cover themselves”   to prevent sexual assaults, says an Islamic street preacher in Toronto.

July 18, 2012 Pakistan   Farida Afridi, a 25-year-old women’s rights activist, left her parents’ home   early on the morning of July 4, as she typically did. She was walking to her   nonprofit organization’s office when two men with Kalashnikovs pulled alongside   her on a motorcycle and shot her multiple times, killing her.

July 24, 2012 Sudan (hat tip   to AtlasShrugs)   Earlier this month a Sudanese woman was found guilty of adultery and sentenced   to death by stoning by a court in the capital Khartoum, a regional women’s rights   group said Monday.

July 25, 2012 Britain   Laws against Female Genital Mutilation have been on the books for 80 years but   there but there have been no prosecutions despite significant evidence that   thousands of girls every year in the UK are at risk of this abusive practice.

Balochistan   (h/t to Grendel)   The militant Lashkar-i-Jhangvi has threatened to throw acid on the faces of   women who venture to the bazaars in Mekran’s largest town of Turbat, according   to a radio report.

Jordan   (h/t to thereligionofpeace)   A Jordanian man was charged on Wednesday with killing his divorced sister after   stabbing her and driving his truck over her body several times because of her   alleged “suspicious behavior,” police said.

July 26, 2012 Italy   (h/t islamversuseurope   )   Italian hotel agreed that a Muslim porter won’t have to take orders from a woman.

Pakistan   (h/t thereligionofpeace)   A woman was shot dead by her brother, a police constable, for not withdrawing   a case registered against him in April for assault. He and her brothers had   told her not to wear pants or ride a motorcycle.

July 27, 2012 UK   A devout Muslim grandmother has been jailed for four years for kidnapping and   drugging her own daughter after she refused to marry the man her family wanted   her to.

Egypt   (h/t to thereligionofpeace)   A new report from George Washington University professor Michele Clark and Coptic   rights activist Nada Ghaly has argued that thousands of young Coptic Christian   girls in Egypt are the victim of kidnapping and forced servitude by Muslims   in the North African country

July 29, 2012 India   (h/t to AtlasShrugs)   The failure to give birth to a son and the inability to fulfill her husband   and in-laws’ demand for money cost a woman her life. She was burnt alive allegedly   by her husband and in-laws in front of her minor daughters on Friday night.

Iran   An Iranian Islamic cleric says, women should only ride bikes in their own backyards,   where no stranger men can see them cycling!

 

July 30, 2012 Egypt   Egyptian women fear for their future under Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood government.
August 6, 2012 Tanzania   Police in Zanzibar have launched an investigation after a woman claimed she   was beaten up by a group of men at Mwanakwerekwe Market for leaving her head   uncovered during Ramadhan.

Pakistan   (h/t to JihadWatch)   A father along with his two sons axed his wife and daughters among four people   to death in the name of honour and injured three others in Bahawalnagar, police   said.

August 7, 2012 Pakistan     Six armed militants bullied shopkeepers selling women garments and cosmetics   in the Singair Bazaar in Hangu on Monday threatening them to remove curtains   from the doors of the shops or face action.
Sources said certain shopkeepers were whipped by the militants with the lashes   they were holding in their hands and they also vandalized the cosmetics shops.Eyewitness   reports said the militants remained in the market for more than 20 minutes and   then left on their motorbikes hurling threats at the merchants.
August 8, 2012 U.S.   (h/t to AtlasShrugs)   A Florida Muslim man was sentenced to life imprisonment for setting his wife   on fire. Prosecutors played the recording at Wednesday’s sentencing for Khalid   Mohd, 41, who was convicted in June of setting his wife on fire because she   wanted his help staying in the United States. He was sentenced to life in prison.
August 9, 2012 Nepal (h/t to   AtlasShrugs)   Nepal has banned women under the age of 30 from going to work in Middle Eastern   countries amid growing concerns that they are being exploited. Common complaints   include physical and sexual abuse, poor conditions and non-payment of salaries.

August 12, 2012 Tunsia   Tunsian women are worried that changes to the nations’s constitution defining   women’s place in society in terms of their relationship to men will bring back   an inequality in gender.

August 13, 2012 Kashmir   The women of Kashmir, renowned for their grace and beauty, have been warned   by groups affiliated with al Qaeda to cover their faces or risk disfigurement   and even death from acid attacks.   The warning also extended to women using mobile phones in public.

August 14, 2012 U.S.   (h/t to thereligionofpeace)   Colorado Springs police arrested five Iraqi men Tuesday in connection with what   they called a “rare” and “horrific” sexual assault on a   woman early July 22. The arrests included one man who was a central character   in an Army’s sergeant’s memoir of an Iraq deployment.
Sarmad Fadhi Mohammed and Jasim Mohammed Hasin Ramadon were taken into custody   on suspicion of sexual assault. Mustafa Sataar Al Feraji, Ali Mohammed Hasan   Al Juboori and Yasir Jabbar Jasim were arrested on suspicion of accessory to   sexual assault. All are in their 20s. Police said the severity of the attack   made it rare in the city, adding that the woman’s injuries could have been life-threatening.

August 16, 2012 Scandinavia   Statistics on the numbers of rapes committed in Scandinavian countries, including   Sweden, by ‘minority’ men.   UK (h/t to thereligionofpeace)     A judge has said the forced marriage of a Muslim woman with learning difficulties   should be annulled and condemned the “insulated” families who arrange   them.

August 18, 2012 Sweden   A man and a woman have been remanded into custody by Attunda district court   in Sollentuna on suspicion of having subjected their daughter to female genital   mutilation (FGM).
August 19, 2012 Egypt   Muslim women are worried about sexual attacks as the Eid holiday arrives.

August 20, 2012 Iran   (h/t to Jaye)   Female students in Iran have been barred from more than 70 university degree   courses in an officially-approved act of sex-discrimination which critics say   is aimed at defeating the fight for equal women’s rights.
August 24, 2012 Egypt   Volunteer patrols of men are trying to help the rising tide of sexual harassment   to women in public spaces.

Iran   A new report from Iran has revealed a striking rise in the number of child brides   under the age of 10-years-old. The Union for the Protection of Children’s Rights   said that in 2010, at least 713 marriages of girls under 10-years-old were registered   in the country, more than twice as many as registered in the three years before.

August 25, 2012 Egypt, Tunisia,   Libya   This summer, as the dust of the Arab Spring revolutions begins to settle, women   – who stood shoulder to shoulder with men in defying tyranny – are finding themselves   marginalised and excluded from decision-making.

UK   Muslim woman in the UK was attacked by her siblings for kissing a white man   during her 18th birthday celebrations. Shamima Akhtar, now a 19-yr-old, suffered   a sickening assault which culminated in her sisters slapping and punching her   and hacking off her waist-length hair.

August 26, 2012 The   World   The Taliban misogynist mentality is alive and well, and in fact it is thriving   and mushrooming globally.

Australia   (ht/t to Tundra Tabloids)   Rape victim Alicia Gali is still traumatised three years after she was raped   and jailed for adultery in United Arab Emirates.

Pakistan   (h/t to thereligionofpeace)   Rimsha, a fifteen year old girl, was picked up by two men on motorcycles and   taken to an unknown location. She was kept in a room and subjected to rape for   five consecutive days, the victim said in an FIR registered at the Gomel police   station.

August 27, 2012 Pakistan   (h/t to thereligionofpeace)   A Christian girl was gang raped by five Muslim men.

India   A girl was critically injured when a two youths threw acid on her face and body.

Germany   (h/t to IslaminEurope for translation of German article)   A Somali broke his wife’s fingers because she wanted to give food to their children   during Ramadan.
Produced by Politicalislam.com   Publisher: Bill Warner; Editor: Asma Marwan Permalink

Bulletin of the Oppression of Women March 29 – May 26, 2012

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March 29, 2012 UK (h/t to IslaminEurope)     A five-year-old girl is thought to have become the UK’s youngest victim of forced   marriage. She was one of 400 children to receive assistance from the government’s   Forced Marriage Unit in the last year.   The figures have emerged as the public consultation into criminalising forced   marriage in England, Wales and Northern Ireland comes to an end. Amy Cumming,   joint head of the Forced Marriage Unit, said 29% of the cases it dealt with   last year involved minors.

Turkey     A judge ruled to release two suspects arrested on suspicion of raping a 15-year-old   girl and allegedly scolded the girl’s mother for not watching her closely enough.
The Izmir 2nd High Criminal Court last week ruled for the release of two suspects   who were arrested two years ago on charges of raping H.S., who was 15 at the   time. Prosecutors had demanded 18 years in prison for the two suspects.

March 30,2 012 Italy   (h/t JihadWatch)   The Italian Supreme Court on Friday upheld a sentence for abuse and aggravated   assault by a Moroccan father against his 12-year-old daughter. Defense lawyers   maintained that the father, who allegedly beat his daughter with a broom handle   for “corrective” purposes after she could not properly recite the   Koran, did so because of “cultural” reasons and should be given a   lighter sentence accordingly.

Turkey   (h/t to thereligionofpeace )   Realising a decades-old objective amid protest from the secular opposition,   Turkey’s moderate Islamic premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pushed through a   reform today that favours the Koranic institutions, introduces an hour of Muslim   religious instruction and exposes girls to danger of being kept at home away   from school.

March 31, 2012 Afghanistan   (h/t thereligionofpeace)   A 12-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy have been killed in an acid attack   in Afghanistan, an official said Saturday, with witnesses claiming it was because   of their friendship in what is an ultra-conservative country.

UK   (h/t to thereligionofpeace)   38 girls may have been involved in a child prostitution ring, it emerged yesterday.   Detectives had originally identified 24 girls, but Simon Heptonstall, prosecuting,   told Amersham Court Court yesterday that police investigations were now focussing   on 38 girls, aged between 11 and 16. Eleven have so far been interviewed by   detectives.
Six men – Zeshan Ahmed, Akhtar Dogar, Anjun Dogar, Kamar Jamil, Bassan Karrar   and Mohammed Karrar – were appearing for a preliminary crown court hearing.

April 19, 2012 Saudi   Arabia   Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al al-Sheikh, has approved marriage   for girls as young as 10 years-old and criticized the notion of raising the   age to 25 years-old according to various news reports. According to The World   Observer, he went on to say a girl becomes ready for marriage at 10 or 12 according   to Islam and stressed that Islamic law is not by any means oppressive to women,   the London-based al-Hayat reported Wednesday.
April 21, 2012 Pakistan   (h/t thereligionofpeace)   Police foiled a plan to marry a 5 year old girl to a 18 year old.

The families were informed that marriage of underage girls is illegal and they   were shocked,” a policeman, who was part of the raid, told The Express   Tribune. “They said we’re illiterate and do not know about the law.”   The girl’s parents have been arrested.

UK   As many as 100,000 women in Britain have undergone female genital mutilations   (FGM) with medics in the UK offering to carry out the illegal procedure on girls   as young as 10, it has been reported.

April 23, 2012 India   Women’s anger against FGM grows in India.

UK   Two Pakistani students rape a woman who fell asleep on a bus and missed her   stop. The students persuaded her to get off with them, saying they would call   a taxi for her.

April 27, 2012 USA   (h/t JihadWatch)   Dr. al-Haj, a medical doctor and fellow at the American Academy of Pediatrics,   ignores FGM’s detrimental effects on women’s health, and instead argues that   it is ‘an honor’ for women. He justifies this position by referring repeatedly   to the words of classical Islamic scholars from the four schools of mainstream   Sunni Islamic thought, all of which attest to FGM’s legitimacy under Islam.   He also refers to the words of the Prophet Muhammad himself, who reportedly   counselled people in his day on how to perform FGM in a way that would be “more   beautiful to behold and better for [the woman's] husband.”
Dr. al-Haj lost his position at the Mayo Clinic. UPDATE   from AtlasShrugs.

April 29, 2012 Chechnya   (h/t JihadWatch)   Chechnya’s government is openly approving of families that kill female relatives   who violate their sense of honor, as this Russian republic embraces a fundamentalist   interpretation of Islam after decades of religious suppression under Soviet   rule.
May 2, 2012 Kuwait   (h/t JihadWatch)   Dianne Wilton, the wife of a former British ambassador has been left with third-degree   burns after a pot of boiling water was hurled at her in an suspected Islamist   attack. She was dining with friends and a member of the Kuwaiti royal family   in a restaurant when a woman attacked her table.

May 3, 2012 Morocco   (h/t to AtlasShrugs)   The widespread practice of marrying minors continues to be one of the most incendiary   legal and political issues in Morocco today, causing open confrontations between   hard-line Islamists and moderates throughout the country.

May 6, 2012 Pakistan   A former lawmaker and cleric from Kohistan district, Maulana Abdul Haleem, termed   formal education for women un-Islamic and asked parents to pluck their daughters   from school, or else they would be ‘doomed’

May 8, 2012 Tunsia (h/t JihadWatch)     The French finance ministry froze the assets of a radical imam from Tunisia   who is under the threat of expulsion for anti-Semitism, an official announcement   said. Mohammed Hammami, 76, has lived in France for decades and was accused   in January by Interior Minister Claude Geant of making “violently anti-Semitic   remarks” as well as calling for women to be “whipped to death”   for adultery.

May 9, 2012 Australia   (h/t AtlasShrugs)   Ismail Belghar, 36, yesterday pleaded guilty to detaining and assaulting his   sister-in-law after she “dared” to take his wife to the beach without   his permission. The court heard, because of his religious beliefs and because   he thought he had absolute authority over her, Belghar felt it “abhorrent”   that his wife, Hanife Kokden, had been to the beach where she “displayed   her body”.
The Moroccan immigrant had originally been charged with the attempted murder   of his wife’s younger sister, Canan Kokden, 25.

UK   (h/t AtlasShrugs)   Nine Muslim men were found guilty of running a sex-ring for years, grooming   and forcing young at-risk British girls to participate. More HERE.

UK   (h/t therelilgionofpeace)   One of the guilty Muslim men in the British child-sex ring, Adbul Rauf, was   an Islamic preacher.

May 10, 2012 India   (h/t thereligionofpeace)   A senior Indian police officer has been recorded suggesting that the father   of a missing girl should murder her in an honour killing.

May 11, 2012 Indonesia   No fewer than six major Islamic organisations have formally objected to the   equality bill on the ground that some of its articles go against Islamic values   in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation where 80 percent of its   238 million people are followers of the faith.

May 12, 2012 India   A 24-year-old woman hailing from Charthawal village created quite a sensation   at the office of SP City, Muzaffarnagar, on last Thursday, when she accused   her father-in-law, Mohammad Jabir, of repeatedly raping her. An obviously pregnant   Sabina (name changed) was covered in a ‘burkha’ and appeared nervous, as she   sought police intervention in the presence of local mediapersons.

Sabina claimed that her husband, Wasul, a small-time cloth merchant was mostly   out of town, which had only emboldened the old man. However, hardly 24 hours   after the drama, Sabina has gone missing and no one, including the police, has   any clue on her whereabouts.

May 13, 2012 Morocco   A young woman, whose name and age remains undisclosed, was said to have been   beaten and stoned for wearing a “short dress” at a market place in   the city of Rabat, reported North African news website Magharebia. It was not   known when the incident had happened.
The assault was reportedly carried out by Salafists, an extremist group who   in recent years are believed to have a link with Al-Qaeda. The attack reportedly   came on the heels of an announcement made by Quran reciter Abu Zeid, who called   for a particular day to be consigned to “chastity and modesty”, the   report said.

May 17, 2012 Pakistan   (h/t thereligionofpeace)   A twelve year old Christian girl who was raped over a year ago receives threats,   not justice.

May 21, 2012 Sudan   Intisar Sharif Abdalla, believed to be between 15 and 17 years of age (although   prison authorities claim she is 20) was sentenced to death in accordance with   Article 146 of the Sudanese criminal law albeit without legal representation.
The judgment was made on May 13, 2012 after just one hearing and came after   an “admission of guilt” plea following torture and brutal beatings   by Sharif’s brother who instigated the case. Her co-accused however remains   un-convicted and walks freely.

May 23, 2012 Afghanistan   (ht/ thereligionofpeace)   Afghan officials say more than 120 schoolgirls and three teachers have been   poisoned at a school in the northern Takhar Province. The attack was blamed   on fundamentalist radicals who used an unidentified toxic powder to contaminate   the air at the school.

Many victims reportedly lost consciousness and were hospitalized. One of the   children, Samera, told Reuters they originally thought the school’s water had   been poisoned. More HERE.

May 26, 2012 Afghanistan   (h/t to Jaye)   A brain drain of bright young women is already taking place in Afghanistan before   the 2014 handover that many fear will mean a reversal of advances in women’s   rights.

The lack of commitment by the Afghan government to equality and to tackling   the high rates of ill-treatment of women in the home and in the workplace is   raising real fears they will be at the bottom of the political agenda in the   push for power after Nato forces leave the country.
Produced by Politicalislam.com   Publisher: Bill Warner; Editor: Asma Marwan

AMJA Senior Committee Member: Female Genital Mutilation Is ‘an Honor’ per Islam

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Dr. Hatem al-Haj

A couple of weeks ago I posted a translation of a paper by Association of Muslim Jurists of America (AMJA) senior committee member Dr. Hatem al-Haj, PhD, MD, in which he warned American Muslims against working in law enforcement in our ‘infidel’ nation (see here for more details). Now in my latest translation, Dr. al-Haj explains why female circumcision is recommended and even ‘an honor’ for women. This is the same practice which is popularly known as female genital mutilation (FGM) due to the pain it causes women. The World Health Organization (WHO) asserts that “the procedure has no health benefits for women,” and causes a range of health problems including “severe bleeding and problems urinating, and later cysts, infections, infertility as well as complications in childbirth.”

Yet Dr. al-Haj, a medical doctor and fellow at the American Academy of Pediatrics, ignores FGM’s detrimental effects on women’s health, and instead argues that it is ‘an honor’ for women. He justifies this position by referring repeatedly to the words of classical Islamic scholars from the four schools of mainstream Sunni Islamic thought, all of which attest to FGM’s legitimacy under Islam. He also refers to the words of the Prophet Muhammad himself, who reportedly counselled people in his day on how to perform FGM in a way that would be “more beautiful to behold and better for [the woman's] husband.”

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Assessment

It appears that for male circumcision the most correct view is that it is obligatory, owing to the saying of Muhammad to the man who converted to Islam: “Remove your infidel hair and be circumcised.” This was obligatory–there was no alternative.

Regarding women, perhaps the most correct view is that it is recommended, however there is consensus that it is (at least) legitimate. Muhammad also endorsed it, as was narrated in the hadith of Umm ‘Atiyah, who used to circumcise girls. He said to her: “Reduce it, but do not remove too much, because it is more beautiful to behold and better for her husband.” He also said, “If you touch the two circumcisions, you must wash.” This shows that female circumcision was prevalent during his day, and he did not repudiate it. Nor did he stipulate anything else regarding female circumcision.

Perhaps the saying that it is (only) recommended is due to the pain women must go through to carry out the acts of al-fitrah, such as circumcision, as stated in the sound hadith. But as we mentioned, this is not evidence of it being confined only to men. The term circumcision was used for both men and women during Muhammad’s time. But it is clear that performing circumcision must be preferable to not performing it, especially when one considers that circumcision includes both pain and revealing one’s nakedness. Thus if there was no benefit to it, the Messenger of Allah would not have agreed to it. However there is still no evidence for making it obligatory. The fact that the Messenger of Allah agreed to it despite the pain and discovering one’s nakedness is not evidence for making it obligatory. Instead, this is evidence for preferring the action over not doing it, as we stated. (Muhammad’s) command to Umm ‘Atiyah is not a command to all women to (be circumcised), but rather he was regulating its practice. He was not telling her not to do it, he was telling her not to go too far and injure the women.

His command to the man who converted to Islam does not apply to women. Even though the principle is that “women are men’s sisters”, and women are often included when addressing men and vice versa, that only applies when there is no reason to differentiate between them. Here the issue is different for men and women. The man’s foreskin could trap urine at the end of it and affect his cleanliness. The issue is not the same for women. Therefore it is appropriate for this to be stressed more for men, and this is apparent in the words of scholars and the works of the ummah.

I have summed up the words of Muhammad and of scholars to show that circumcision is legitimate, and that the principal issue in the study is the limits of circumcision