Why is Ramadan, the month in which Muslims redouble their efforts to please Allah, the “traditional time for girls to be cut”? Reuters shows no curiosity about this. The answer is because female genital mutilation has justification in Islamic law, and Islamic law is considered divine law, superseding all human law.
This story repeats the usual establishment media line: “People in countries where FGM is still common attempt to link it to religion, but the practice has nothing to do with any faith and predates both Christianity and Islam. It has also been denounced by religious leaders worldwide.”
That is only partially true, at best.
Yes, “people in countries where FGM is still common attempt to link it to religion”: “It is a religious thing. Do you want to change religion?” said one Egyptian in response to a campaign to eradicate female genital mutilation. “You only listen to what the West is saying.”
However, the establishment media ignores the fact that 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, in Sudan and everywhere else.
“Somalia Sees ‘Massive’ Rise in FGM During Lockdown and Ramadan,” by Emma Batha, Reuters, May 18, 2020 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
Somalia’s coronavirus lockdown has led to a huge increase in female genital mutilation (FGM), with circumcisers going door to door offering to cut girls stuck at home during the pandemic, a charity said on Monday.
Plan International said the crisis was undermining efforts to eradicate the practice in Somalia, which has the world’s highest FGM rate, with about 98% of women having been cut.
“We’ve seen a massive increase in recent weeks,” said Sadia Allin, Plan International’s head of mission in Somalia….
She told the Thomson Reuters Foundation nurses across the country had also reported a surge in requests from parents wanting them to carry out FGM on their daughters while they were off school because of the lockdown.
FGM, which affects 200 million girls and women globally, involves the partial or total removal of the external genitalia. In Somalia the vaginal opening is also often sewn up – a practice called infibulation.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has warned that the pandemic could lead to an extra two million girls worldwide being cut in the next decade as the crisis stymies global efforts to end the practice.
Allin said families in Somalia were taking advantage of school closures to carry out FGM so that the girls had time to recover from the ritual, which can take weeks.
The economic downturn caused by coronavirus has also spurred cutters to tout for more business, she said.
“The cutters have been knocking on doors, including mine, asking if there are young girls they can cut. I was so shocked,” said Allin, who has two daughters aged five and nine.
She said restrictions on movement during the lockdown were making it harder to raise awareness of the dangers of FGM in communities….
The UNFPA, which estimates 290,000 girls will be cut in Somalia in 2020, said the spike was also linked to Ramadan, which is a traditional time for girls to be cut….
mortimer says
Hurting women is a holy sacrament in Islam. It doesn’t grow back.
………………………………………………………………….
“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 clitoris (bazr in Arabic)- (this is called HufaaD).”
Source- Reliance of the Traveller, a classical manual of Islamic sacred law in Arabic with facing English text, commentary and appendices edited and translated by Nuh Ha Mim Keller (1994) p59. (Note that the English version falsely translates bazr as ‘prepuce ‘ of the clitoris!!)
gravenimage says
Grimly true, Mortimer.
Robert says
Average IQ in Somalia: 68
Shares #38 position with Angola, Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti and Swaziland on the World Ranking List
https://new-iq-test.com/somalia-average-iq.html
Rufolino says
How could you be so politically incorrect as to quote such statistics ? Whether they are true or not is irrelevant in the world of today ! You had better watch out.
LB says
Yes, how dare Robert the racist to quote accurate data that shows correlation between race and IQ!!!! That’s equivalent to saying the dreaded career-and-life-ending N-word in public. Hey Robert, I hope you have plenty of life savings stashed because you will soon be unemployable in the entire West 😀
Wellington says
Imagine if this were just a “cultural” practice but a vast majority of people who did it were Christians, not Muslims. How do you think the Western media, and that glorious group of extreme hypocrites known as Western feminists, would react then?
I rest my case.
Jim says
The UNFPA, which estimates 290,000 girls will be cut in Somalia in 2020, said the spike was also linked to Ramadan, which is a traditional time for girls to be cut….
======================
How can they commit such a crime against humanity, how can they engage in such a war on women, and nobody seems to care? Nobody who could say or do anything about it, that is.
Tama says
IslamQA does not deny the foul cutup in their answers, puke they can’t pluck eyebrow hair because that’s a slander yet can carve away.
“With regard to the criticism of circumcision by some doctors, and their claim that it is harmful both physically and psychologically,
This criticism of theirs is not valid. It is sufficient for us Muslims that something be proven to be…
It is not right to abandon his teachings for the view of anyone else, even if that is a doctor, because medicine is knowledge and knowledge”
“Circumcision is not an inherited custom as some people claim, rather it is prescribed in Islam and the scholars are unanimously agreed that it is prescribed. Not a single Muslim scholar – as far as we know – has said that circumcision is not prescribed. ”
“For us in the Muslim world female circumcision is, above all else, obedience to Islam, which means acting in accordance with the fitrah and following the Sunnah which encourages it. We all know the dimensions of Islam, and that everything in it must be good in all aspects, including health aspects. If the benefits are not apparent now, they will become known in the future, as has happened with regard to male circumcision – the world now knows its benefits “
gravenimage says
+1
gravenimage says
Somalia: Ramadan, the “traditional time for girls to be cut,” sees “huge increase” in female genital mutilation
……………….
Bloody thugs–these *poor girls*. How can this be “un-Islamic”, yet it is “traditional” to mutilate girls during Islam’s “holy month”?
Joern Remesberger says
Allahu screwed up ,as usual, when he created women ! Gave her Organs to be cut later!!!!
mortimer says
REP. PAT SCHROEDER A DEMOCRAT CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS IN 1993
In October 1993, U.S. Representatives to Congress Patricia Schroeder and Barbara-Rose Collins introduced legislation entitled the “Federal Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act.”
Congresswoman Schroeder pronounced some stirring words:
“Mr. Speaker, women around the world face daily humiliations, discriminations, hardships, subordination, and suffering. Women in Africa may win the prize. Young girls in many African countries face a traditional ritual that involves the cutting or complete removal of their sex organ — or female genital mutilation. FGM is often called female circumcision, implying a similarity to male circumcision. There is no similarity, unless male circumcision involved AMPUTATION.”
TODAY THE DEMS WOULD CALL HER “ISLAMOPHOBIC” FOR DEFENDING WOMEN !!
James Lincoln says
Yes, Mortimer.
The world has been turned “Orwellian”.
I have always tried to use reason backed up with factual evidence based logic. If I am broadsided with evidence that I am wrong, I will readjust my thinking. An increasing large percentage of the world population, even in Western countries, does not.
The world to me is rapidly becoming unrecognizable – people like me no longer fit in.
mortimer says
Thanks, Tama. A helpful post. ISLAMQA is pure Sharia law! They defend the indefensible. They are backward, blockheaded, bronze-age misogynists.
Beverly says
My question to an Islamist who believes that female circumcision is necessary, is if Allah creates everything with perfection, why is it upon you to improve on what Allah has created?
James Lincoln says
Great question, Beverly.
Interested to know what others have heard when that very question is asked…
Giacomo Latta says
Hmmm, you seem to be searching for logic in Islam. Be prepared to be disappointed.
James Lincoln says
Giacomo Latta,
Rightly so, I always personally try my best to use logic and reason – I sometimes forget for a brief moment that the average muslim does not hold that mindset…
notnolib says
Have the terrorists at the terror organization CAIR chimed in on this?
Doug? Thoughts?
gravenimage says
Here is some of CAIR’s disgusting apologia for this atrocity:
“CAIR: Columnist’s Anti-Islam Diatribe Ignores Words of the Quran and Prophet Muhammad”
https://www.cair.com/op_eds/cair-columnists-anti-islam-diatribe-ignores-words-of-the-quran-and-prophet-muhammad/
Notice they *never* actually condemn mutilating little girls. *Ugh*.
E T says
“And more desirable for the husband”. Hmmm. Has there ever been a study showing Muslim men have a penis that is as small as their brain, is that the reason for FGM?
E T says
I have another question. If Islam is a religion, why are there so many rules pertaining to sex? When I read the Qur’an for the first time, I was aghast at the amount of so called “scripture” that was about women and sex. When I was finished reading the book, I thought it is not a religion of peace but a cult of oppression and sex. After reading many books about Islam, I think anyone who believes it is a religion of Peace is sadly misinformed.
gravenimage says
+1