An instinctive yet baseless loathing!

Posted 27 Jul 2010 by Walaa Idris

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I watched Ayaan Hirsi Ali talk and was left speechless, I could not believe that anyone [who can read and write] can be that illiterate. Had she bothered to read the Koran rather than paint it on her she might have learned a few truths!

Such as Islam is and has always been a peaceful religion but like all religions it is open to misinterpretations!

The two issues that she sited ‘Honour killing & Female Genital Mutilations’ predate Islam – the only circumcision required by Islam is male circumcision. However, some primitive cultures, mainly in Africa perform this brutal act on females for cultural reasons but justify it by stamping Islam on it. Countries like Sudan and Egypt have outlawed this practice for over half a century now and it is hardly practised by Arabs in the Arabian Peninsula – if she looks at the statistics of the cases sited in Europe and the West, she will find that both the victims and the offenders are mainly of African origin who happened to be Muslims. Does that make it an Islamic prerequisite or practice? No, but it confirms that it is cultural in its origins.

I understand Ms Ali’s dismay with Islam – it is also very obvious that the kind of Islam she was exposed to and taught has hugely misinterpreted the theology due to ignorance and lack of education, or because the scholars deliberately twisted its understanding for their own personal reasons. Whichever the reasons are, it reflects poorly on her.

By comparison to Islamic Fundamentalists and Wannabe Islamic Sensationalists like Ms Ali there are many more Muslims, who learned, know and practise the true message of Islam and understand its teachings – to not write books or make TV appearances about it might seem unfair to the theology of Islam but did she convince any of the panellists with her argument in that 6 minutes plus clip or was that polite retreat from her fellow panelists we just watched?

1 comment(s)

Sally Roberts

Sally Roberts
27 Jul, 12:28

Thank you for the clarification, Walaa. I, too, had always understood that FGM was cultural and was not part of Islam. It is a truly repugnant practice which should not be tolerated in civilized society. In my own faith as well as in Islam, men are circumcised and this is an entirely procedure – a small operation which is in fact proven to have health benefits (wives of Jewish men are statistically less likely to get Cervical Cancer). The “surgery” performed on these women and girls – sometimes God help them without anaesthetic – leaves them mutilated and traumatised.

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