"Female Circumcision" & “false scholars”

DR first reported Female Genital Mutilation on the rise in the Maldives in April 2007. Since then DR has continued to bring the horrors of Female Genital Mutilation and some types of responses are worth mentioning.

People who have more Islam in them are more cruel and indifferent to the suffering of women. They use their brains less and follow the teachings of Mohammad without questioning. This kind of people are like zombies and will beat their wife, "circumcise" their daughter etc just because some book or somebody tells them.

What Allah says is right is right. What Allah says is wrong is wrong. As a Muslim it is as simple as that. - Ibn Kattab

Some people do realize that Female Genital Mutilation is a cruel thing. And they do not want it to be part of their religion. The immediate rebuttal that Female Genital Mutilation has nothing to do with Islam is standard policy and procedure of the moderate Muslims and you can expect to run into a barrage of those.
Whenever the genital mutilation holocaust is raised, the first chorus that comes from the Muslim community is that this genocide is not rooted in Islam and predates Islam.

Some comments from readers at Minivan News:

MNJ - Female genital mutilation is an African practice Did the scholars in Addu come from Africa

Mariyam - This is done in 1970’s even in Male’. I have a friend who has done it and I was done it too. This is not religious.

Aishath - It is time the true Islamic scholars came out and spoke against such practices as abuse of women and children.

Muad - Disgusting how some scholars give Islam a bad name. Police should arrest these people and warn people who gives into these false fatwas that they too will be arrested if they take any part in this.

“Suood said “false scholars” were promoting anti-Islamic activities that also violated human rights principles”

From blogs:

“Only recently, it has become linked to religion and people have embraced the practice as part of a religious ritual.” – Maldiveshealth Blog.

"ismail: FGC is not a religious act! if you are so concerned about the issue why talk about it but do something about it... your always welcome... but i have question about your motives! so count me out..."

"it is not a part of islam, brother... don't be mistaken! "- Yusuf Abdulla Shunan

The noteworthy thing about the above is that none of the people above are Islamic Scholars and none will tell you where in Islam "female circumcision" is not allowed.

However, the Islamic Scholars themselves will tell you that it was the Prophet himself (peace and blessings be upon him) who brought Female Genital Mutilation into Islam.

The Eminent Muslim scholar, Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi quoting Mohamed, Prophet of Allah at Islam Online -

"Reduce the size of the clitoris but do not exceed the limit, for that is better for her health and is preferred by husbands".

The hadith indicates that circumcision is better for a woman's health and it enhances her conjugal relation with her husband.

It’s noteworthy that the Prophet's saying "do not exceed the limit" means do not totally remove the clitoris.

Egyptian Al-Azhar University scholar Sheikh Muhammad Al-Mussayar –

"First of all, there are reliable hadiths in Al-Bukhari and Al-Muslim which support female circumcision. The Prophet Muhammad said: 'If a circumcised woman and man have intercourse, they must undergo ablution.' Unreliable hadiths do not cancel out the reliable ones. We have unreliable hadiths regarding prayer, fasting, charity, and pilgrimage. Should we abolish prayer and charity just because some hadiths are unreliable? According to some hadiths in Al-Bukhari and Al-Muslim, 'If a circumcised woman and man have intercourse, they must undergo ablution.' People would curse one another by saying: 'You son of a clit woman' - the son of a non-circumcised woman. The objections to circumcision are illogical and unnatural."

There is no denying that many atrocities, especially those against women and children are being perpetrated under the tutelage of Islamic scholars as Islamic religious duties.

The religious scholars going around to midwives giving fatwas that girls have to be circumcised did not imagine it out of thin air.

They learned it in the best Islamic institutions in the world!