Friday, May 22, 2020

ISLAM IN SOMALIA: RAMADAN, THE "TRADITIONAL TIME FOR GIRLS TO BE CUT", SEES "HUGE INCREASE" IN FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION

SOMALIA: RAMADAN, THE "TRADITIONAL TIME FOR GIRLS TO BE CUT", SEES "HUGE INCREASE" IN FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION
BY ROBERT SPENCER
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research 
purposes:

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….
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