Muslim Cleric Condemns Ban on Female Genital Mutilation
Somehow he hasn’t gotten the media’s memo that FGM is un-Islamic.
We’re constantly told in the West that female genital mutilation (FGM) is a cultural practice that has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam, but as is always the case with the leftist establishment narrative, reality is otherwise. The latest reminder of that all-important fact comes from Gambia, where the learned imam Abdoulie Fatty (he isn’t one) has condemned – on Islamic grounds -- attempts by human rights campaigners to ban FGM.
Gambia’s The Voice reported Monday that “one of the Gambian top Imams has condemned a ban on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the country and talked hard on campaign groups which he said are spreading falsehood about FGM everywhere.” Fatty chose the most important forum of any given week for Muslims, the Friday sermon, to issue this condemnation: he made his statements “as he descended on campaigners against FGM in his last Friday sermon (khutbat) at a Mosque in around Bartex prior the congregational Jumaat prayer.”
Fatty “emphasised that FGM has been in practice since the time of Prophet Ibrahim (ASW) and ‘it was witnessed by Prophet Muhammad (SAW) during his time, too.’”
“My dear Muslim people,” the genial imam exhorted his audience, “I am advising us on the fear of God – all of us, let’s follow the teachings of Islam. My dear Muslim people we used to hear it and hearsay and they have a wake campaign and that is the reason why we do this type of sermon anytime they came back but they will meet us like the sun in the sky.”
As far as the good imam was concerned, attempts to ban FGM were part of the infidel West’s cultural imperialism: “We don’t give it to anybody to come and teach us about our den. we don’t give chance to anybody to come and teach us about our culture, white is with their dirty culture and men’s [sic] are marrying to each other and they legalize it, woman and woman are marrying each other and they legalize it, some have even pinned their private part, their breast, and they are sleeping with dogs and they don’t fight for all that. Instead they are fighting for our FGM while we are encouraging them to come because we have a dirty culture and wicked practice. But in as much as our brain that Allah has created with us to contain the knowledge is with us, we will never leave it until we die In Shaa Allah, may God help us, (amen).”
Imam Fatty brushed aside the campaigners’ claims to be defending the human rights of the victimized girls: “You heard them saying they are campaigning that they have pitying on our daughters, sisters, and wives and the saddest thing is that you have seen some Muslims in those gatherings. (As Muslims in such gathering) let them point it out where it is in the Islamic.” That is, he is saying that it is un-Islamic for Muslims to attend these anti-FGM meetings.
It is no surprise that Fatty has done this. And he is not alone in insisting that FGM is Islamic. “It is a religious thing. Do you want to change religion?” said one Egyptian in response to a campaign to eradicate female genital mutilation. “You only listen to what the West is saying.”
FGM is also mandated in Islamic law: “Circumcision is obligatory (for every male and female) (by cutting off the piece of skin on the glans of the penis of the male, but circumcision of the female is by cutting out the bazr ‘clitoris’ [this is called khufaadh ‘female circumcision’]).” That’s from the manual of Islamic law Umdat al-Salik e4.3 (translated by Mark Durie, The Third Choice, p. 64).
Why is it obligatory? Because Muhammad is held to have said so: “Abu al- Malih ibn Usama’s father relates that the Prophet said: ‘Circumcision is a law for men and a preservation of honour for women.’” (Ahmad Ibn Hanbal 5:75)
And in another hadith: “Narrated Umm Atiyyah al-Ansariyyah: A woman used to perform circumcision in Medina. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said to her: ‘Do not cut severely as that is better for a woman and more desirable for a husband.’” (Abu Dawud 41:5251)
That hadith is classified as weak, but this one is classified as sahih (reliable): “Aishah narrated: ‘When the circumcised meets the circumcised, then indeed Ghusl is required. Myself and Allah’s Messenger did that, so we performed Ghusl.’” (Jami` at-Tirmidhi 108)
If Muhammad had the genitals of his favorite wife, Aisha, mutilated, that is a strong endorsement of the practice from the man who is an “excellent example” (Qur’an 33:21) for Muslims.
Why does it matter whether or not FGM is Islamic? Because the practice will never be eradicated if its root causes are not confronted. As long as those Muslims continue to believe that Allah and Muhammad want it done, for some that will override all other considerations, in Gambia and everywhere else.
Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of 21 books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His latest book is Rating America’s Presidents: An America-First Look at Who Is Best, Who Is Overrated, and Who Was An Absolute Disaster. Follow him on Twitter here. Like him on Facebook here.
Islamist Group Honors Imam Linked to ’93 WTC Bombing for Black History Month
Siraj Wahhaj was linked to the bomb-maker and praised the spiritual leader of the attack.
Joe Kaufman is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center; a writer for the Counter-Islamist Grid, a project of the Middle East Forum; and the Chairman of the Joe Kaufman Security Initiative. He was the 2014, 2016 and 2018 Republican Nominee for U.S. House of Representatives (Florida-CD23).
During Black History Month, individuals are generally honored by schools, government entities and others for the important contributions they made to the civil rights movement. One group, though, the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), has honored a man, in the name of Black History Month, Siraj Wahhaj, who is known for being linked to one of the worst terrorist attacks on US soil. That event, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, took the lives of six people, including a pregnant woman, and injured over one thousand more. To pay tribute to such a man is an act of callous disregard to the attack victims and those who suffered injustices of the past.
ICNA is the American arm of South Asian Islamist organization, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI). JI’s militant apparatuses have caused much murder and mayhem. One former JI death squad leader, Ashrafuz Zaman Khan, who was sentenced to death, in absentia, for multiple murders in Bangladesh, is currently active in ICNA and has served for years in ICNA’s top leadership. ICNA has used the web to promote terrorist groups, including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Taliban, and in December 2017, ICNA organized an event featuring Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), a US-banned front for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the group responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Starting February 1st, every year, America celebrates Black History Month, and this month, ICNA did its part by posting a graphic containing famous black icons along with the logo of its social services division, ICNA Relief, onto its national website and social media. The graphic included images of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali, people who played a large role in uplifting the black community at a time when discrimination against blacks was commonplace. Also included among these iconic figures was a man whom many would probably not recognize, the imam of Brooklyn, New York’s At-Taqwa Mosque, Siraj Wahhaj.
Wahhaj, like Malcolm X, can credit the beginning of his existence as a Muslim to the Nation of Islam (NOI). While with NOI, Wahhaj took classes from rabid anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, who at the time was supervisor of NOI New York operations. Decades after he left the Nation, Wahhaj still kept strong ties with Farrakhan, giving speeches and helping Farrakhan to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars at NOI events, while showering Farrakhan – a man who lauded Hitler – with glowing admiration.
In February 1995, along with Osama bin Laden and others, Wahhaj was named by the US government an “unindicted co-conspirator” related to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, al-Qaeda’s precursor to 9/11. Wahhaj had been linked to the bomb-maker of the attack, Clement Rodney Hampton-El, and during the trial, he was a character witness for the spiritual leader of the attack, the “Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdel Rahman, whom Wahhaj has openly praised. In one of his sermons, Wahhaj infamously stated about America, “In time, this so-called democracy will crumble, and there will be nothing. And the only thing that will remain will be Islam.”
One last image on ICNA’s Black History Month graphic was that of Ieasha Prime. Prime, who is a regular speaker at ICNA conventions, is billed by Islamists as a leader in women’s empowerment, though her involvement with ICNA, a group that promotes subservience to men, contradicts this. Prime sits on the Executive Committee of the Muslim Alliance of North America (MANA), an organization that was founded by Wahhaj and calls for freedom for notorious cop killer Jamil Al-Amin, a.k.a. H. Rap Brown. Al-Amin, an ex-member of the Black Panther Party, made the infamous statement, “If America don't come around, we’re gonna burn it down.”
Putting Siraj Wahhaj and Ieasha Prime on the level of historical black icons – albeit a couple, Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali, who bore significant controversies of their own (Malcolm X preached racism and violence; Ali refused military service) – is an act of disrespect to everyone who fought for African-American civil rights in America. More than that, to place Wahhaj on anything of importance is an insult to the memories of all those who perished in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the ensuing attack that took place on September 11, 2001 in addition to the first responder heroes who acted bravely to save them.
In an attempt to prop up two of its Islamist colleagues, one who is linked to one of the worst terrorist attacks on US soil, ICNA has made a mockery of Black History Month. ICNA should remove the images of Wahhaj and Prime from all of its Black History Month posters immediately and offer apologies to all offended parties. These individuals are not persons to be celebrated. They, as well as the organization honoring them, do not foster the civil rights of anyone. In fact, they destroy them.
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