Actually I don’t think FGM is widely practiced in Saudi Arabia. It is practiced in Yemen, and apparently in parts of Saudi Arabia close to Yemen, but not in most of Saudi Arabia.
Incidentally, for those who think FGM and MGM are ‘different’, the Yemeni version of MGM used to be something called ‘penile flaying’. It was practiced as part of the wedding ceremony, and regularly killed the groom. I don’t think it is still practiced.
But back to FGM and Islam. . .
FGM is common throughout Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country. Despite Indonesia being where a great deal of the world’s FGM actually occurs, you never hear much about FGM in Indonesia. This may be because minimal tissue is removed, and hence the anti-FGM organizations have a tougher job presenting a case against it.
Male babies regularly bleed out and die from being genitally mutilated. If you’re not aware you’re simply not paying attention.
According to some estimates over 100 male babies die from genital mutilation each year in the US alone. Circumcision rituals claim the lives of dozens of South African teens each year. Many more African teens end up with gangrene of the penis (necessitating amputation to save their lives) or become otherwise sexually dysfunctional.
Life goes on though. The reality is that in evolutionary terms males are relatively expendable. Society can lose a few and function just fine.
This no doubt partly explains societal reluctance to use the term genital mutilation when the persons having their perfectly healthy functional erogenous tissue removed happen to be male.
Meanwhile, when it happens to females everybody dutifully expresses their outrage.
Are you saying the Jews and Muslims of Europe never practiced it before the 19th century? Or are you saying they never qualified as “European” before the 19th century?
“The deceptive translation by Nuh Hah Mim Keller, made for Western consumption, obscures the Shafi’i law, given by ‘Umdat al-Salik, that circumcision of girls by excision of the clitoris is mandatory. This particular form of female circumcision is widely practiced in Egypt, where the Shafi’i school of Sunni law is followed.”
What a redundant question. And why is European in scare quotes?
You know perfectly well what I’m saying.
I’m saying that historically, mainstream European values (not the values of tiny minority communities existing in Europe) held genital mutilation to be disgusting - even sinister and threatening. There were occasionally tales (in most cases presumably unfounded) of Jews kidnapping and mutilating gentile children.
I can’t just assume I know what people are saying all the time, or I’ll mislabel people. For example, I could assume you’re talking about a pure, true (“mainstream”) European culture the way some people talk about a pure, true European race. Or I could assume you mean European = Christian (and Christian = European?). I think you can imagine how discussions along those lines could be problematic.
“European” is in scare quotes because saying European culture was monolithic until the 19th century makes about as much sense as saying the same thing about, say, Mediterranean culture. If you put it that way, expect distractions from what you were (I assume) trying to communicate about.
