|
submit
articles |
| Female
Circumcision Debate FGM- An Islamic Perspective A war has been raged in recent years between hard line clerics and moderate ones over the issue of female circumcision, which predated Islam by many centuries and is practiced by both Muslims and non-Muslims alike who live mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa in countries that include but are not limited to Egypt, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Chad, while remains relatively unknown in most other parts of the Muslim world, including South and South-east Asia, North Africa and Saudi Arabia. Male circumcision is a Muslim tradition which, although not prescribed in the Qur'an, was approved by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) who was himself circumcised. Male circumcision has proved to have beneficial health consequences for men. But female genital mutilation on the other hand hasn’t proved to have a link to Islam or medically desirable. A recent conference hosted by After a ban on the practice was overturned by the Egyptian government in 1997, Egypt hosted last week a conference, organized by Dar Al Iftaa, Egypt's main religious-edicts organization in cooperation with German human rights organization, which witnessed participation of numerous Muslim scholars and religious leaders from various parts of the world, who spoke against female genital mutilation, or female circumcision. Although religious leaders usually tend to avoid commenting on such controversial subjects such as circumcision, Al Azhar's grand sheikh, Mohammed Sayed Tantawi and Scholars said female circumcision was an aggression against women and stressed that Islam forbids people from inflicting harm on others, in response to claims by those who circumcise their daughters, believing it helps prevent promiscuous behaviour. "In Islam, circumcision is for men only," Tantawi said at the conference. "From a religious point of view, I don't find anything that says that circumcision is a must for women," he added. Also Dr. Ali Gomaa, "The Prophet Mohammed didn't circumcise his daughters," "The message of the religious institutions and clerics should be crystal clear and issue recommendation to ban girls and women's circumcision," said Moushira Khattab, secretary general of "We all know that many people in Below is a detailed look at the link some established between FGM and Islam. Muslim scholars have been criticising female genital mutilation, but some argued that while it was not required by religion, it was not prohibited. Some also insisted that it might be desirable in some cases and that it should be left for the medical profession to decide. Female circumcision is not mandated, but one tradition of disputed authenticity permits (but does not encourage) the cutting of a minuscule segment of skin from the female prepuce, provided no harm is done. Proponents of FGM believe that removing the clitoral hood enhances a woman's sexual experience which would not violate her rights to sexual fulfillment. “A woman used to perform circumcision in But one shouldn’t make too much of this tradition, as it is classified as "weak" by Abu Dawud (the compiler) himself. It forbids severity in circumcision and bases such limitation on the potential to harm the woman and the potential to make her less desirable to her husband. It must be mentioned however that the Prophet did not prohibit circumcision completely. The circumcision of girls dates to the time of the pharaohs in In contrast to what those link the practice to Islam claim, FGM was a custom in some parts of Contrary to what’s being said in the West about the practice, female circumcision never became widespread among Muslims around the world and is essentially non-existent among the native inhabitants of The Holy Qur’an includes many examples of how Islam respects the integrity of the human being- both in body and in spirit. FGM violates that integrity, insulting Allah’s creation that needs no improvement. “It is Allah Who has made for you the earth as a resting place and the sky as a canopy, and has given you shape- and made your shapes beautiful” – Qur’an 40:64 “Our Sustainer! Thou hast not created (any of) this in vain” – Qur’an 3:191 “And spend in Allah's cause and let not your own hands contribute to your own destruction and persevere in doing good: behold, Allah loves the doers of good” – Qur’an 2:195 Wa Allahu a’lam. (And God knows best.) Source:
www.islamonline.com |