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{{Quote|[https://www.memri.org/tv/egyptian-cleric-supports-fgm-cites-protocols-elders-zion 'Egyptian Cleric: Female Circumcision Has Economic Benefits; Jews Fight It in Keeping with Protocols of the Elders of Zion' (Mar 27, 2017)]|”The discussion about female circumcision goes back to the past century. The first time that this subject was debated extensively was in the past century. Who were the first to talk about it? The Jews. They do not want Islam or the Muslims to be pure, developed, and civilized, so they started talking about it.”}}
{{Quote|[https://www.memri.org/tv/egyptian-cleric-supports-fgm-cites-protocols-elders-zion 'Egyptian Cleric: Female Circumcision Has Economic Benefits; Jews Fight It in Keeping with Protocols of the Elders of Zion' (Mar 27, 2017)]|”The discussion about female circumcision goes back to the past century. The first time that this subject was debated extensively was in the past century. Who were the first to talk about it? The Jews. They do not want Islam or the Muslims to be pure, developed, and civilized, so they started talking about it.”}}
As the above quote (dating Mar 27, 2017) confirms, the idea that FGM might be un-Islamic appears to be quite recent. The earliest fatwa clearly critical of FGM appears to be one from 1984<ref name=":1" />. [[File:Fgmwordsearches.jpg|alt=NGram for terms: 'FGM', 'Female Genital Mutilation' and 'Female Circumcision'|thumb|NGram for terms: 'FGM', 'Female Genital Mutilation' and 'Female Circumcision']]There has been a flurry of fatwas concerning FGM in recent decades in response to a world-wide increasing sensitivity to the rights of women and children, and a growing international awareness of the practice of FGM.
As the above quote (dating Mar 27, 2017) confirms, the idea that FGM might be un-Islamic appears to be quite recent. In recent decades there has been a flurry of fatwas concerning FGM in response to a world-wide increasing sensitivity to the rights of women and children, and a growing international awareness of the practice of FGM. The earliest fatwa clearly critical of FGM appears to be one from 1984<ref name=":1" /> [[File:Fgmwordsearches.jpg|alt=NGram for terms: 'FGM', 'Female Genital Mutilation' and 'Female Circumcision'|thumb|NGram for terms: 'FGM', 'Female Genital Mutilation' and 'Female Circumcision']]An Ngram for the terms ‘fgm’, ‘female genital mutilation’ and ‘female circumcision’ shows a sharp and steady rise in the more condemnatory terms (‘mutilation’ and 'FGM' rather than ‘circumcision’) in English-language literature starting around 1989. This coincides with the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, which first identified female genital mutilation as a harmful traditional practice, and mandated that governments abolish it as one of several ''<nowiki/>'traditional practices prejudicial to the health of children'''.<ref>[http://archive.today/2016.10.21-124829/http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx Convention on the Rights of the Child]</ref> Soon afterwards reports and condemnations were issued by organisations such as the World Health Organisation (1995),<ref>[https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/63602/WHO_FRH_WHD_96.10.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Female genital mutilation : report of a WHO technical working group, Geneva, 17-19 July 1995]</ref> the Council of Europe (1995), and UNICEF & UNFPA (1997).<ref>[https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/41903/9241561866.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Female Genital Mutilation - A Joint WHO/UNICEF/UNFPA Statement]</ref> Parts of the Islamic world, especially those parts which don't practice FGM, for the first time in Islamic history, began to endeveour to de-link FGM from Islam.
An Ngram for the terms ‘fgm’, ‘female genital mutilation’ and ‘female circumcision’ shows a sharp and steady rise in the more condemnatory terms (‘mutilation’ and 'FGM' rather than ‘circumcision’) in English-language literature starting around 1989. This coincides with the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, which first identified female genital mutilation as a harmful traditional practice, and mandated that governments abolish it as one of several ''<nowiki/>'traditional practices prejudicial to the health of children'''.<ref>[http://archive.today/2016.10.21-124829/http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx Convention on the Rights of the Child]</ref> Soon afterwards reports and condemnations were issued by organisations such as the World Health Organisation (1995),<ref>[https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/63602/WHO_FRH_WHD_96.10.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Female genital mutilation : report of a WHO technical working group, Geneva, 17-19 July 1995]</ref> the Council of Europe (1995), and UNICEF & UNFPA (1997).<ref>[https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/41903/9241561866.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Female Genital Mutilation - A Joint WHO/UNICEF/UNFPA Statement]</ref> Islam saw itself reflected in the non-Islamic world’s eyes and felt ashamed at what it saw – leading to, for the first time in Islamic history, to the practice being criticised and questioned by some.  
''<nowiki/>''
In recent decades many agencies and charities have engaged themselves in the fight against FGM<ref>[http://archive.today/2021.04.09-035738/https://www.humanrightscareers.com/issues/organizations-fighting-female-genital-mutilation/ 20 Organizations Fighting Female Genital Mutilation]</ref>. These agencies (and other individuals working to combat FGM) face a particular challenge: when interacting with populations who practice FGM, telling the truth is guaranteed to make matters worse. For example how should a worker for an anti-FGM charity, who is giving a lecture to a roomful of Somali mothers in the hope of persuading them to abandon the practice, respond the the question '''is FGM Islamic''?' 


In recent decades many agencies and charities have engaged themselves in the fight against FGM<ref>[http://archive.today/2021.04.09-035738/https://www.humanrightscareers.com/issues/organizations-fighting-female-genital-mutilation/ 20 Organizations Fighting Female Genital Mutilation]</ref>. These agencies  and Individuals working to combat FGM face a particular challenges 
If the charity worker tells those mothers about the FGM hadith, and about how FGM is part of the fitrah (which Qur'an 30:30 exhorts Muslims to adhere to - see [[User:Flynnjed/Sandbox#FGM in the Qur.27an|FGM in the Qur'an]]), and how the Shafi'i (the school of fiqh which Somalia follows) scholars are unanimous in making FGM mandatory - those mothers will leave the lecture ''more'' likely to have their daughters mutilated, rather than ''less'' likely, as intended. This dilemma faces not just on-the-ground charity workers, but the whole hierarchy of institutions devoted to combating FGM, and a variety of strategies have emerged to resolve the dilemma. Most involve some form of obfuscation or diversion which gives the ''impression'' of showing FGM to be un-Islamic whilst, on closer examination, doing no such thing. 


<s>The non-Moslems who one might call dhimmis – who have learnt to be subservient to Islam, paying lip-service to Islam's supposed perfection. They are keen to credit Islam for any virtue its followers may manifest, but reject the possibility that Islamic doctrine may also influence its followers towards malignity. This group eagerly buy in to the narratives and obfuscations of the last group, Moslems who obfuscate the link between FGM and Islamic doctrine . Unfortunately dhimmis populate the institutions such as the police, the courts, schools and universities, the media and the care sector, and thus control the narrative.</s>
The 'FGM as un-Islamic' narrative is also reinforced by the fact that it is a minority of Muslims that practice FGM. Muslims who don't practice FGM have become more aware of FGM over the past decades, and generally share the objections of non-Muslims towards the practice. And, in addition, are troubled by its association with Islam.Immigration to the West has tended to come from these non-practicing schools and traditions - from the Maghreb, Pakistan and Turkey, where the presiding school of fiqh is Hanafi - the school of fiqh under which there is the least incidence of FGM. These immigrant populations have effectively imported the 'FGM is un-Islamic' narrative to the West.  


<s>Another factor in shaping the dominant narrative is what I call 'The Charity's Dilemma'.</s>
The following section addresses some of the principal arguments used to support the 'FGM is Un-Islamic' position.  
 
<s>Imagine you are working for an anti-FGM charity and you are trying to persuade a roomful of Moslem Somali women not to have their daughters mutilated. You deliver a talk that makes clear the harmful nature of FGM and how its supposed benefits are spurious.</s>
 
<s>At the end of your talk one mother asks you 'Is FGM Islamic?'</s>
 
<s>You know the truth is that it is Islamic. But you also know that if you told them this that they would leave your talk more, not less, likely to mutilate their daughters.</s>
 
<s>You either lie and say FGM is unislamic, or you obfuscate by saying something which appears to say it's unislamic, whilst doing no such thing (FGM is an African practice, FGM existed before Islam, not all Moslems practice FGM, Christians practice FGM too).</s>
 
<s>But whatever you do you must steer them away from the truth.</s>
 
<s>The same mechanism operates vis a vis terrorism –promoting an untruth and suppressing the Truth in the hope that Moslems will come to believe the untruth.</s>
 
<s>There is also the factor of 'Moslem Privilege' – whereby they are exempted from laws, norms and moral standards that apply to everyone else – laws and norms concerinng animal cruelty, identity concealment, child cruelty, inheritance and gender equality laws, freedom of speech, polygamy, sexual slavery...</s>
 
<s>A final factor has become clear to me from watching the Grooming Gangs cover-up. I originally thought that the cover-up was in order to pacify Moslems. However this has not happened, yet the authorites are still desperate to maintain the cover-up. I believe the real fear of the authorities is the natural and justified anger of ordinary people as the true nature of Islam becomes more and more apparent.</s>
 
The 'FGM as un-Islamic' narrative is bolstered by the fact that it is a minority of Muslims that practice FGM. Muslims who don't practice FGM have become more aware of FGM, and generally share the same objections to the practice as do non-Muslims, and are troubled by its association with Islam. And immigration to the West has tended to come from non-practicing schools and traditions - Muslims from the Maghreb, from Pakistan and Turkey, who belong to the Hanafi school of fiqh - the school of Islam which under which there is the least incidence of FGM. It is these groups that have done the most to promote the narrative delinking FGM from Islam.
 
Other factors favour the 'FGM as un-islamic' narrative in the West
 
<s>However, Islam’s response to FGM is reminiscent of that of a burglar who, after having practiced his trade with impunity for a life-time, has a sudden access of guilt and repentance on his first appearance before a judge. One suspects his distress is more at being found out than guilt or repentance.</s> <s>Muslims, when discussing FGM, are generally more concerned with showing that FGM is un-Islamic than with condemning it or with protecting potential victims.</s> This is comes from a obligation to prevent Islam's notional perfection from being sullied by its association with a practice perceived to be barbaric. The protection of girls and women from FGM often appears not to be a priority at all, indeed it is not infrequent to hear the argument that 'FGM is nothing to do with Islam, but it should be legal'.  
 
<s>This results in arguments being used to de-link FGM from Islam that are, by Western standards of critical thinking, are particularly weak and incoherent.</s> 
 
The following section addresses some of the principal arguments used. 


{{anchor|arguments}}   
{{anchor|arguments}}   


===Arguments de-linking FGM from Islam (Modern perspectives)===
===Arguments de-linking FGM from Islam ===
appear to be cataloguing polemics rather than addressing them.  
<!-- appear to be cataloguing polemics rather than addressing them.


'scholars say this/Critics say this'.  
'scholars say this/Critics say this'.


overview of polemical position
overview of polemical position


'modern revisionist perspectives say this, and critics respond'
'modern revisionist perspectives say this, and critics respond' -->{{anchor|equivocation}}  
 
{{anchor|equivocation}}  
====FGM is not required by Islam====
====FGM is not required by Islam====
Probably the most cited instance of this is a fatwa issued by Dr Ahmed Talib, the former Dean of the Faculty of Sharia at Al-Azhar University, the most prestigious university for Sunni Islamic learning.{{Quote|[https://www.academia.edu/6142789/Egypts_Villages_Fight_Female_Genital_Mutilation_WFS_NEWS Dr Ahmed Talib, Dean of the Faculty of Sharia at Al-Azhar University]|“All practices of female circumcision and mutilation are crimes and have no relationship with Islam. Whether it involves the removal of the skin or the cutting of the flesh of the female genital organs… it is not an obligation in Islam.”}}Dr Talib clearly condemns FGM in this fatwa, and the implication of his final phrase () could pass unnoticed.


- The Shafi'i school of Islam and some Hanbali scholars have ruled FGM obligatory.  
A critical reading of the fatwa reveals that, according to Dr Talib, FGM’s legitimacy may stop only just short of ‘obligatory’. The fatwa's conclusion is ‘[FGM] ''is not an obligation in Islam’.'' There is a very significant difference between something '<nowiki/>''not being obligatory'<nowiki/>'' and something being '<nowiki/>''forbidden': 'Not an obligation'<nowiki/>'' includes everything short of ''<nowiki/>'obligatory'<nowiki/>''. And the fact something is '<nowiki/>''not obligatory''’ in no way implies that it is  forbidden or even undesirable. Examples of acts that are '''not obligatory''<nowiki/>' include owning a dog, giving to charity, child sexual abuse and murder. A fatwa may be adorned with much criticism and condemnation of FGM, but for Dr Talib to conclude that ''‘FGM is not obligatory under Islam’'' suggest that he was unable to state that ''‘FGM is forbidden under Islam’''. 'Not obligatory', 'allowed' or 'tolerated' are no more acceptable legal or ethical positions for a practice such as FGM than they would be for murder, child sexual abuse or rape.
 
- (islamic scholars say this - critics say that) 'Not obligatory', 'allowed' or 'tolerated' ( critics say) are no more acceptable legal or ethical positions for a practice such as FGM than they would be for murder, child sexual abuse or rape.  
 
- Since the 1990s Islamic scholars, clerics and other sources have issued fatwas and statements that appear to criticise, condemn and even forbid FGM. However, a critical reading of these reveals that they virtually all engage in some form of equivocation (deliberate use of ambiguous or equivocal language) in order to appear to be more critical of FGM than they are. Probably the most cited instance of this is a fatwa issued by Dr Ahmed Talib, the former Dean of the Faculty of Sharia at Al-Azhar University, the most prestigious university for Sunni Islamic learning. 


{{Quote|[https://www.academia.edu/6142789/Egypts_Villages_Fight_Female_Genital_Mutilation_WFS_NEWS Dr Ahmed Talib, Dean of the Faculty of Sharia at Al-Azhar University]|“All practices of female circumcision and mutilation are crimes and have no relationship with Islam. Whether it involves the removal of the skin or the cutting of the flesh of the female genital organs… it is not an obligation in Islam.”}}After gaining our trust by forthrightly condemning FGM, the implication of his final phrase (‘''it is not an obligation in Islam’'') could easily pass unnoticed i.e. that under Islam, FGM’s legitimacy may stop only just short of ‘obligatory’ - which, of course, could include''‘highly recommended’''. There is a world of difference between something '<nowiki/>''not being obligatory'<nowiki/>'' and something being '''forbidden':'' the fact something is not ‘obligatory’ in no way implies that it is undesirable, unacceptable or forbidden: owning a dog is not ‘obligatory’; giving to charity is valued, respected and encouraged but, like FGM in Islam, it is not ‘obligatory’. A fatwa may be adorned with much criticism and condemnation of FGM, but if all that criticism amounts to nothing more than a statement that ''‘FGM is not obligatory under Islam’'' – it merely reveals that the author of the fatwa was unable to state that ''‘FGM is forbidden under Islam’''.
It should also be noted that the Shafi'i school of Islam and some Hanbali scholars have ruled FGM obligatory.


{{anchor|noFGMQur}}
{{anchor|noFGMQur}}  


====There is no FGM in the Qur'an====
====There is no FGM in the Qur'an====
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