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→The Question of Responsibility
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{{Quote|[https://unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/De-linking%20FGM%20from%20Islam%20final%20report.pdf 'Delinking Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting from Islam'] by Ibrahim Lethome Asmani & Maryam Sheikh Abdi (2008)|'Shafi’i view it as wajib (obligatory) for both females and males'}} | {{Quote|[https://unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/De-linking%20FGM%20from%20Islam%20final%20report.pdf 'Delinking Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting from Islam'] by Ibrahim Lethome Asmani & Maryam Sheikh Abdi (2008)|'Shafi’i view it as wajib (obligatory) for both females and males'}} | ||
'Reliance of the Traveller' by by Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri (1302–1367) is the Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law according to Shafi'i School. {{Quote|''Reliance of the Traveler'' [''Umdat al-Salik''], Section e4.3 on Circumcision|'''Obligatory (on every male and female) is circumcision.''' (And it is the cutting-off of the skin [''qat' al-jaldah''] on the glans of the male member and, '''as for the circumcision of the female, that is the cutting-off of the clitoris')}} | 'Reliance of the Traveller' by by Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri (1302–1367) is the Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law according to Shafi'i School. {{Quote|''Reliance of the Traveler'' [''Umdat al-Salik''], Section e4.3 on Circumcision|'''Obligatory (on every male and female) is circumcision.''' (And it is the cutting-off of the skin [''qat' al-jaldah''] on the glans of the male member and, '''as for the circumcision of the female, that is the cutting-off of the clitoris')}}Nuh Ha Mim Keller's 1991 translation of Reliance of the Traveller is bowdlerised to make its content more acceptable to Western eyes and translates the word 'bazr' ( بَظْرٌ ) as 'clitorial prepuce' instead of simply 'clitoris' (see section [[#Defining Bazr|Defining Bazr)]]. | ||
===Hanbali Madhab=== | ===Hanbali Madhab=== | ||
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As it is, most fatwas that appear to condemn FGM are, at best, worryingly ignorant of the place of FGM in Islamic doctrine, or engage in uncritical thinking, or are, at worst, insincere – designed to be no more than pacifiers of the concerns of the non-Islamic world. | As it is, most fatwas that appear to condemn FGM are, at best, worryingly ignorant of the place of FGM in Islamic doctrine, or engage in uncritical thinking, or are, at worst, insincere – designed to be no more than pacifiers of the concerns of the non-Islamic world. | ||
four categories | |||
protecting the image and reputations of Islam | |||
===Arguments de-linking FGM from Islam=== | ===Arguments de-linking FGM from Islam=== | ||
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===The Question of Responsibility=== | ===The Question of Responsibility=== | ||
Debates around FGM and Islam are almost entirely conducted in terms of whether FGM is Islamic, whether Mohammed approved of the practice or not. | |||
But it is wrong to assume that, because an authority or ideology does not require a particular practice, it is therefore not morally responsible for any incidence of that practice that occurs under its aegis: few 19<sup>th</sup> century industrialists ''intended'' their factories to be polluting, but the factories ''did'' pollute, and did so reliably and predictably (i.e. not by accident or in a desultory manner). Thus we can say that pollution was an inherent consequence of 19<sup>th</sup> Century industrialism, despite it being an unintended consequence; a mother does not need to compel her toddler to play with a loaded gun for her to be considered responsible for any harm that results from it doing so. She merely has to ''allow'' it to play with the loaded gun, or fail to take reasonable measures to prevent it from doing so. | |||
When we ask whether FGM is Islamic or not we are, in effect, asking whether FGM accords with Islam's best conception of itself. This covers only a small part of what it means to be 'responsible'. | |||
A moral entity (which can include an ideology and religion) is not only responsible for the intended consequeces of its actions (i.e. those that are in accordance with its best conception of itself) but all its acts and all the consequences of its doctrine and its implementation – including those that are unintended, those which clash with the best conception the ideology has of itself, and which many of its followers are ashamed of, or wish to repudiate. | |||
''The question that matters is not whether FGM is Islamic or not, but to what extent Islam is responsible for the existence of FGM in the world today, and for much of the past 1400 years.'' | ''The question that matters is not whether FGM is Islamic or not, but to what extent Islam is responsible for the existence of FGM in the world today, and for much of the past 1400 years.'' | ||
Islam appears to be responsible for the sacralisation of FGM, its spread, and the hindering of its eradication – whether FGM is 'Islamic' or not has no bearing on this responsibility. | Islam appears to be responsible for the sacralisation of FGM, its spread, and the hindering of its eradication – whether FGM is 'Islamic' or not has no bearing on this responsibility. | ||