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→‎FGM is not required by Islam

Flynnjed

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 This dilemma faces not just on-the-ground charity workers, but the whole hierarchy of institutions devoted to combating FGM. To resolve the dilemma a number of propositions have evolved to support the proposition that FGM is un-Islamic.
 ===FGM is not required by Islam===
-Probably the most cited instance of this argument is a fatwa issued by Dr Ahmed Talib, the former Dean of the Faculty of Sharia at Al-Azhar University, the most prestigious university for Sunni Islamic learning.{{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'''.”}}In this fatwa Dr Talib so emphatically condemns FGM that the implication of his final phrase could pass unnoticed.
+{{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'''.”}}Critics of Dr Talib's position can point out that ''<nowiki/>'not an obligation''' is no more acceptable ethical or legal or ethical position for a practice such as FGM than it is for murder, child sexual abuse or rape.
-Critics of this position .... If one assumes Dr Talib to have weighed his words and meant what his words mean, then FGM’s legitimacy stops short of ‘obligatory’. ''<nowiki/>'Not an obligation'<nowiki/>'' includes everything from '<nowiki/>''forbidden''<nowiki/>' to '<nowiki/>''highly recommended'<nowiki/>'', and the fact something is '<nowiki/>''not obligatory''’ in no way implies that it is forbidden or even undesirable. Examples of acts that are '''not obligatory''<nowiki/>' include owning a dog, giving to charity, child sexual abuse and murder. For Dr Talib to conclude that ''‘FGM is not obligatory under Islam’'' suggests that he was unable to state that ''‘FGM is forbidden under Islam’''.
+'Not an obligation' is far from the same thing as 'forbidden'. The legitimacy of an act that is not obligatory can include 'tolerated', 'allowed', 'recommended' and 'highly recommended' as well as 'forbidden'. And acts that are '''not an obligation''<nowiki/>' can be virtuous (e.g. giving to charity), vicious (e.g. murder), or ethically neutral (e.g. owning a dog).
-But 'not obligatory', 'allowed' or 'tolerated' are no more acceptable legal or ethical positions for a practice such as FGM than they would be for murder, child sexual abuse or rape.
+His first sentence ("All practices of female circumcision and mutilation are crimes and have no relationship with Islam") sets up the expectation that FGM is an act that should be forbidden. Which raises the question of why he fails to deliver the obvious corollary of this in his conclusion - that FGM is forbidden in Islam. Instead his conclusion is ambiguous - failing as it does to foreclose the possibility that, for all his condemnation of the practice, that FGM might nevertheless be virtuous and highly recommended in Islam.
 It should also be noted that the Shafi'i school of Islam and some Hanbali scholars have ruled FGM obligatory.