Autochecked users, em-bypass-1, em-bypass-2
645
edits
User:Flynnjed/Sandbox: Difference between revisions
→The Question of Responsibility
| Line 107: | Line 107: | ||
{{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')}}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)]]. | '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=== | ||
| Line 399: | Line 399: | ||
===The Question of Responsibility=== | ===The Question of Responsibility=== | ||
Debates around FGM and Islam are | Debates around FGM and Islam are generally conducted in terms of whether FGM is 'Islamic' - whether Mohammed approved of the practice or not. But when we focus on these questions we are, in effect, debating whether FGM accords with Islam's best conception of itself. An axiom of Islamic epistemology is its own perfection, which means that anything 'imperfect' is automatically exuded from Islam's conception of itself: | ||
This is an unreasonable level at which to set the bar of Responsibility. A court would never judge an accused person solely according to his best conception of himself: we are all innocent if we admit only the very best of ourselves as evidence. And person who commits a crime is not considered innocent because it was committed in negligence or is out of character. | |||
The important question is not whether FGM is Islamic or not, ''but to what extent and how Islam is responsible for the existence of FGM in the world today, and for much of the past 1400 years.'' | |||
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 their factories ''did'' pollute, and did so reliably and predictably (i.e. not by accident). Pollution was an inherent consequence of 19<sup>th</sup> Century industrialism, despite it being an unintended consequence and 19th Century industiralism was responsible for that pollution; likewise 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. | |||
'' | |||
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. | |||
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. | ||
==See Also== | ==See Also== | ||