User:Flynnjed/Sandbox: Difference between revisions

'''Female Genital Mutilation''' (Arabic: ختان المرأة) is the practice of cutting away and altering the external female genitalia for ritual or religious purposes. Those who practice or defend FGM refer to it as 'Female Circumcision'. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) generally consists one or both of the following procedures: '''Clitoridectomy:''' the amputation of part or all of the clitoris (or the removal of the clitoral prepuce); '''Excision:''' the cutting away of either or both the inner or outer labia. A third procedure, '''Infibulation''', involves the paring back of the outer labia, whose cut edges are then stitched together to form, once healed, a seal that covers both the openings of the vagina and the urethra. Infibulation usually also involves clitoridectomy. Those who engage in FGM consider its primary purpose to be the safeguarding of the purity, virtue and reputation of girls and women.

'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)]].

'''(1951)''' ''“Female circumcision is a part of the emblem of Islam and it is mentioned in the prophetic sunnah.'' [FGM’s bad effects] ''are neither certain nor proven, and therefore one cannot base himself on them to reject the circumcision in which the wise Legislator saw a wisdom”'' Sheikh Nassar – cited in ‘[https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1481084933/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Male and female circumcision: Religious, medical, social and legal debate]‘ by Sami A. Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh

'''(1981)''' ''“If a region stops, of common agreement, to practice male and female circumcision, the chief of the sate declares war against that region because circumcision is a part of the rituals of Islam and its specificities. This means that male and female circumcisions are obligatory.” '' sheikh Jad-al-Haq – cited in ‘[https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1481084933/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Male and female circumcision: Religious, medical, social and legal debate]‘ by Sami A. Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh

'''(1985)''' ''“This attack against the female circumcision […] is undertaken by its adepts and its propagators, either because of ignorance or distraction like parrots, or because of bad intentions and hidden motives like foxes and wolves, or because of hostility and hate like collaborators and agents paid by traitors and enemies[…]. Their only worry is to satisfy their instincts and their passions. Their goal is to free themselves of all limits, morals, traditions and customs. They try to reverse our society according to their limping opinions , their black hearts and their sly mind, to make a society base on corruption, wantonness, atheism, anarchy and immorality”'' a professor of the  faculty of Muslim theology in Mansurah, Egypt – cited in ‘[https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1481084933/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Male and female circumcision: Religious, medical, social and legal debate]‘ by Sami A. Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh

'''(2000)''' ''“Those who hate Islam and its rituals launched a ferocious campaign against female circumcision. This campaign is fed by Christian spite, sustained by the crusaders’ mass media and financed mainly by the American dollar […]. Even worse is when some Muslim countries promulgate laws forbidding physicians and circumcisers to perform the female circumcision and applying sanctions against those who violate these laws […]. By so doing, these States forbid what God permits. And that is where the danger resides […]. However, one knows that, according to the Muslim religion, the interdiction or the permission belongs to God […] and to no one else be he governed or governor, man or angel.”''  a Saudi sheikh – reported in in ‘[https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1481084933/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Male and female circumcision: Religious, medical, social and legal debate]‘ by Sami A. Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh

There is evidence that FGM was practiced before the birth of Muhammad in the Middle East and along the African coast of the Red Sea. The following are listed in roughly chronological order.  

Much of what follows is based on the work of Gerry Mackie, a political scientist who has investigated the social origins of FGM, using comparative-historical sociology and game theory.  Mackie identifies the roots of FGM as lying in polygyny, particularly the kind of extreme polygyny that existed at the heart of empires, where some men could become powerful and wealthy enough to be able to afford harems of hundreds of concubines (the word 'concubine' is a euphemism for sex-slave).

*'''chaperoning and gender segregation'''  eliminate interactions between the sexes;

*'''veiling'''  makes girls less interesting and identifiable to males;

The 'FGM as un-Islamic' narrative is bolstered by the fact that it is a minority of Muslims that practice FGM. And that most Muslims who migrate to the West come from non-practicing schools and traditions - and Muslims from the Maghreb, and Muslims from Pakistan and Turkey, who belong to the Hanafi school of fiqh, The Hanafi school is the school of Islam under which there is the least incidence of FGM.

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

{{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’''.

The underlying assumption of this argument is that ''if a practice existed before Islam then it can not be Islamic''. Most of what constitutes Islam is not original to Islam. Muhammad took what was a secular practice and sacralised it.

The hidden assumption here is that only that which Mohammed originated can be Islamic. If this were true almost nothing that has been considered Islamic over the last 1400 would be so. Monotheism, male circumcision, abstention from pork, giving to charity, interdictions on lying, murder would all be unislamic since previous religions and societies have held these beliefs and practices.

But the grain of truth behind this argument is that FGM did indeed exist before Islam. But though a practice that is persistent once established – it would have eventually died out as more advance Graeco-Roman and Christian conceptions of society and humanity spread and prevailed, not least monogamy. But Mohammed took what was a practice specific to his particular tribe and, by deeming his life and teachings as 'exemplary' and perfect for all mankind, for the rest of time, and then by subsequently praisnig and approving of FGM - Mohammed sacralised FGM and guaranteed that it would exist and flourish for as long as Islam existed.

This is a commonly heard variation on “FGM existed before Islam” - and it is true that FGM existed in a part of Africa before the invention of Islam – notably Egypt and the West coast of the Red Sea. But FGM was also practiced in Arabia before the invention of islam, not least by Mohammed's tribe – the Quraysh – the FGM Hadith record this fact.

We can note that most of Africa does not practice FGM and that the majority of FGM happens outside of Africa – it appears to have been the islamic invasion and occupation of Africa and Islam's plundering of the content for sex slaves that spread FGM to its current extent which coincides with that of Islam, its influence and its bloody borders.

It is also well documented that FGM was brought to Indonesia by Moslem traders and conquerors in the 13^th Century. Indonesia has +90% rates of FGM amongst its Moslems and is of the Shaafi school - the School that makes FGM obligatory.{{anchor|christians2}}

The underlying assumption of this argument is that ''if Christians engage in a practice then it can not be Islamic. This would mean that what is 'islamic' depends on what Christians do. That if Christians, for example, started paying abstaining from pork, then abstaining from pork would become un-Islamic.''    

====not all muslims practice FGM====

First, as is clear from above the baseline stance that Islam takes on FGM is that it can't be forbiden. For a practice such as FGM this is not the correct base line - a parallel would be a religion that allows murder or rape.  

This argument engages in Petitio Principi or 'Begging the Question' (The fallacy of assuming in the premise of an argument that which one wishes to prove in the conclusion). Islam forbids all mutilations to the human body – '''''other than those that Islamic law permits'''''. Hence male circumcision is a mutilation that Islamic law permits and it is therefore not forbidden. Likewise [[Amputation in Islamic Law|the amputation of hand and feet]]. Beheading, [[stoning]], and [[crucifixion]] are all also permitted in Islamic law and involve mutilation prior to the victim's death.

Moral agents (which can be individuals, collectivities or ideologies) are responsible not just for the consequences (intended and unintended) of what they mandate (i.e. those that are in accordance with its best conception of itself) but, also for the consequences (intended and uninitended) of what they allow, and what they fail to forbid or discourage. not only responsible for the intended consequences of its actions 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.