Nightmares of Female Genital Mutilation

Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.” 

There is truly a war on women going on that radical Democrats and defenders of “women’s rights” say nothing about. We do not read even muted comments about this other war: namely, the application of female genital mutilation (FGM) in sub-Saharan Africa and throughout the Middle East. It’s estimated, for example, that 97% of the women in Egypt have undergone this primitive, excruciating, and wholly unnecessary practice. Just this month, the Islamic State (sometimes referred to as ISIS or ISIL) issued a fatwa (a theocratic, binding command) that all women living in the areas they control will undergo FGM. Estimates vary, but it will apply to approximately four million women between the ages of 11 and 46.

The liberals, who downplay the threat of Islam to Western civilization, hide behind “cultural relativism” on this one. There is no outcry against this barbaric practice. Instead, the cultural relativist says to himself or herself, That’s just how some third world folks are. You can’t expect people to change overnight. In short, the culpability of Third-World countries is minimized.

This type of reasoning fails to acknowledge that there are good and real reasons why some countries are called civilized and some are called backwards. Adherents of it fail to see the importance of values in shaping people. And in particular they fail to see the significance of Judeo-Christian or biblical values, as in the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount, in shaping the defining moral and spiritual aspects of society.

Thus, FGM is often perceived by its opponents not as a clash of civilizations, but as a technical issue to be overcome, but not aggressively deplored. The Muslim world’s debates center on which type of FGM is “more sanctioned” by religious texts – the pharaonic circumcision, which requires the removal of the entire clitoris, or sunna circumcision, the most common form in the Islamic world, which requires removal of the fold of skin covering the clitoris (prepuce). While some Islamic clerics say circumcision is not obligatory for women, others say it is. An outraged West should incessantly be asking: is this a debate worth having?

The cutting of the clitoris of girls is intended to curb their sexual desire and preserve their sexual honor before marriage. The practice has a tremendous cost: many girls bleed to death or die of infection. Most are traumatized. Those who survive can suffer adverse health effects during marriage and pregnancy. New information from Iraqi Kurdistan raises the possibility that the problem is more prevalent in the Middle East than previously believed and that FGM is far more tied to Islam than many Western academics and activists admit.

When asked why they subject their daughters to the operation, many Muslim women respond that it has always been like that. Because the clitoris is considered “dirty” (haram), women fear that they cannot find husbands for their daughters if they have not been mutilated, and many believe that men prefer sex with a mutilated wife. Others stress the Islamic necessity of FGM.

When the jihadists denounce Christianity, denounce Judaism, and denounce the West (especially the “Great Satan,” the USA), they are declaring war to the death. Among our many irreconcilable differences with the Muslim world is our rejection of their inhuman violence against women.

We are in WWIII. It is a war of civilizations. Although religion is paramount for the jihadists, it is not for the West. One side of this conflict is Western, pleasure-seeking, technological, democratic, and motivated by Judeo-Christian values. Interwoven in this gestalt are socialistic, communistic, and quasi-humanistic ideas of progress (derived from Judeo-Christian ideals yet not acknowledging that derivation). The other side is motivated by a fierce Quranic fundamentalism.

If we do not win in the struggle against Islamic supremacism, the cult of FGM will have prevailed. Who can bear the thought?

Jeffrey Ludwig teaches philosophy and pastors a church in New York City. He was formerly an Editor of the Harvard Educational Review and a Teaching Fellow in American History and Literature at Harvard University.