User:Flynnjed/Sandbox2: Difference between revisions

Dr. Ashenafi Moges]|However, '''not all Muslims practise FGM''', for example, it is not practised in Saudi Arabia, Libya, Jordan, Turkey, Syria, the Maghreb countries of northwest Africa, Morocco, Iran and Iraq. All the Muslims in FGM practicing countries do not practice it, for example, in the case of Senegal where 94% of the population are Muslims only 20% practice FGM (Mottin-Sylla 1990). }}About 20% Muslim women have undergone FGM.<ref name=":2" /> This suggests that about 80% of Muslims ''don't'' practice FGM.  

For this fact to prove that FGM is un-Islamic - one must accept the assumption that only those practices which all Muslims engage in are Islamic.   

This is, in turn, is based on the assumption that a religion is defined only by that which it makes universally obligatory. But religions are also defined by - and responsible for - what they recommend, encourage, allow, discourage and forbid. For example, the Eucharist (Holy Communion) is undoubtedly Christian. But it is recommended, not obligatory, and not all Christians take the Eucharist. And polygyny is unquestionably Islamic, but not every Muslim has several wives.   

Not all Islamic practices are obligatory: polygyny and child marriage are not obligatory, and whilst a Muslim must complete 5 prayers a day, there are optional (nawafil) prayers which confer additional rewards. Fasting outside of the month of Ramadhan, or giving sadaqah (voluntary charity) are also optional. The Shafi'i school makes FGM obligatory, the Maliki school recommends it, and the Hanafi school allows it. The schools' different levels of obligation are reflected in the incidence of FGM. And where it is merely 'allowed' or 'tolerated' are we surprised that parents abstain from an act that goes against parents deepest instincts? 

The variations in the stances of the schools of fiqh to a large extent account for why not all Muslims practice FGM. There is also the encroachment of Christian and Western values, improving levels of education and progress in women's rights. However, the most condemnatory stance Islamic scholars can take on FGM is that it can't be forbidden, that it is 'allowed'.  

But FGM is not an ethically neutral act, such as the Eucharist - swallowing a wafer - or Baptism - sprinkling water on a baby's head. FGM is an act of mutilation and torture carried out on a child. 'Allowing' is no more the appropriate base-line for such an act than it would be for child sexual abuse, rape or murder. A legal system does not need to make child sexual abuse ''compulsory'' for it to be defined as being favourable to child sexual abuse - it is sufficient that it ''allows'' child sexual abuse to earn itself that label.

Thus the fact that not all Muslims practice FGM is a consequence of some schools allowing FGM, others recommending it, and others mandating it. That some communities, where they have the freedom to choose, have historically chosen not to engage in FGM does not alter the fact that Islam's basic position of ''allowing'' FGM, makes FGM Islamic.   

Would the Islamic world be as rife with FGM as it is today?