Sunday 23 February 2014

The Truth About Islam And Female Circumcision/FGM




I was very disappointed to watch a video from Shaikh Haitham Al-Haddad in which he insists female circumcision is Sunnah and wajib. He mentioned ahadith, but does not elaborate on the fact that they are 'weak' he also mentions any form of female circumcision is illegal in the UK, but then does not tell people to refrain from it in fact encourages it by repeatedly saying its Sunnah. This is highly irresponsible.

Most of all at the end of the video he admits he hasn't done all his research and cannot discuss the degrees of female circumcision or some of its alleged 'benefits'. This makes the video a farce.

I used to respect  this scholar for his pro-voting/political participation stance but now this and his alleged statement  “a man should not be questioned why he hit his wife, because this is something between them" has left me so depressed. It seems more and more men in our community are enemies of our women and advocates of patriarchy. 

I would urge everyone to read this excellent article from my brothers and sisters at the Asharis Assemble blog. It is by far best resource/explanation about female circumcision/FGM from an Islamic perspective I have ever come across.  As is the video posted at the top.

I hope other scholars and community leaders try to educate Shaikh Haitham or at least convince him to be more responsible and compassionate. He has done our community a lot of harm.

No man has the right to mutilate a woman, and to use our faith as justification is a grave sin and error. A woman is more than capable of thinking and acting for herself. I worry that Haitham Al-Haddad has many followers and they will be swayed to hurt their daughters. 

Indeed he is undoing the good work of activist such as Fahma Mohamed. 





No comments:

Post a Comment