Defense lawyers have said they will argue a freedom of religion defense – setting the stage for an explosive test of Americans’ religious rights that experts say could ultimately be settled by the Supreme Court.
As Robert Spencer explained here, Fakhruddin Attar’s lawyer Mary Chartier “apparently she intends to argue that female genital mutilation (contrary to constantly repeated establishment media myth) is justified in Islam, and that therefore Dr. Attar was just exercising his freedom of religion. If that is really what she intends to do, this will become a test case for the spread of Sharia practices in the U.S.: either Muslims will be allowed to violate existing U.S. laws under the rubric of the freedom of religion, or they will be called upon to obey U.S. laws even when those laws conflict with the teachings of Islam. If the court rules for the latter, the U.S. will have a chance to continue to exist as a free society. If the court rules for the former, it will be opening the door to all manner of jihad activity and Sharia practices that violate laws regarding equality of rights and equality of access to services, and no one will be able to say a word against the spread of Sharia in the U.S.”
According to the World Health Organization:
FGM is recognized internationally as a violation of the human rights of girls and women. It reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes, and constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against women. It is nearly always carried out on minors and is a violation of the rights of children.
Yet the barbaric practice is being audaciously presented in court as a religious right. If this succeeds, other Islamic practices such as child marriage, wife-beating and the beheading of “blasphemers” could also be recognized as religious rights.
“Michigan FGM case could test bounds of religious liberty”, by Trevor Bach, Christian Science Monitor (thanks to The Religion of Peace), July 27, 2017:
This fall, a United States district judge will hear a landmark case: For the first time, the federal government is pursuing a case of female genital mutilation on American soil.
Defense lawyers have said they will argue a freedom of religion defense – setting the stage for an explosive test of Americans’ religious rights that experts say could ultimately be settled by the Supreme Court.
The case began with charges related to two 7-year-old girls who were transported to Livonia, Mich., by their parents to have FGM performed on them, according to the government. Six people have been charged, and the clinic where the procedures were performed has been closed. The reach of the investigation has since expanded to cities including Los Angeles and Minneapolis. Assistant US Attorney Sarah Woodward has said in court it’s possible the doctor performed nearly 100 procedures between 2005 and 2017.
“Most religious freedoms don’t really affect other people,” says Frank Ravitch, an expert on law and religion who teaches at Michigan State University’s law school. “There are exceptions, but not in this direct a way, where we have these young girls who are having their bodies affected. It raises some really powerful questions.”
In the Michigan case, the courts will weigh a religious minority’s rights against the federal government’s interest in protecting children. Experts agree that if the government proves the procedure caused substantial harm to the girls, then convictions are virtually guaranteed.
“Religious freedom does not include the freedom to do things that we all consider harmful to children,” says Robert Sedler, a constitutional law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit….
Jumana Nagarwala, the doctor who performed the procedure; Fakhruddin Attar, the owner of the clinic; his wife, Farida, who prosecutors allege assisted; another assistant, Tahera Shafiq; and Farida Arif and Fatema Dahodwala, the mothers of two Detroit-area girls who prosecutors allege were also victims, all face charges. The accused and the alleged victims are all members of the Dawoodi Bohras, a sect of Shiite Islam concentrated in western India….
“We know there is female genital mutilation,” Mary Chartier, a lawyer for Fakhruddin Attar, told the Detroit Free Press in May. “No one is saying it doesn’t exist. But what we’re saying is this procedure does not qualify as FGM.”…