Ireland: Muslim Leader backs female circumcision on Public TV

(Dublin) A leading member of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland has really opened people’s eyes over his views on female genital mutilation (FGM) by rebranding it as female circumcision ,endorsing it  and tries to get around the ban on FGM, by stipulating it can be carried out if a doctor says so.

Speaking  on the TV show, Prime Time on RTE,  Dr Ali Selim said:

“I’m not an advocate of female genital mutilation but I am an advocate of female circumcision. We see female circumcision in the same way we see male circumcision. It might be needed for one person and not another, and it has to be done by a doctor and practised in a safe environment. The same medical reason that would justify male circumcision would be the same for females. It is not an obligation, but it should be allowed by law if needed and a medical doctor can decide if it is needed or not. People by nature are different and their organs are different. What one person needs is not necessarily needed by another, and it should be determined by a doctor. It is always been portrayed as ‘horrible’ or ‘barbaric’ or ‘mutilation’ and is portrayed as a dark-skin practice or from the dark ages,”

Naturally this hasn't gone down well with the vast majority of people in Ireland which prohibited FGM in 2012, it is also a criminal offence for a person to take a girl to another country to undergo it. Prof Chris Fitzpatrick, and a number of activists opposing FGM, have objected strongly to Dr Selim’s comments:

 “Female circumcision is no longer a phrase that any acceptable authority, medical or otherwise, there are “no health benefits to FGM” and noted the campaign to end the practice is supported by the United Nations, UN Women, Unicef, the World Health Organisation, the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics as well as many other women’s health and human rights’ organisations.”

The irony here is,whilst Ireland is moving away from a church enforced abortion ban ,  one of the leaders of another pious religious faith wants to legalise the mutilation of -primarily- little girls because, he thinks it should be allowed, but only if a doctor says so. I suppose that makes it alight.  Unless of course you are an Islamic doctor in Michigan currently under lock and key for cutting over 100 little girls.