{"id":44001,"date":"2023-10-02T16:20:52","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T16:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/islamic-council-issues-fatwa-in-defence-of-female-circumcision"},"modified":"2023-10-02T16:29:52","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T16:29:52","slug":"islamic-council-issues-fatwa-in-defence-of-female-circumcision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/islamic-council-issues-fatwa-in-defence-of-female-circumcision","title":{"rendered":"Islamic Council issues fatwa in defence of female circumcision"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong><\/span><b>The Gambia Supreme Islamic Council (SIC) Fatwa and Moon Sighting Committee has issued a fatwa to all Gambian Muslims defending the legality of female circumcision. A fatwa is a legal opinion, decree or ruling issued by an Islamic jurist or jurists.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The SIC committee\u2019s fatwa came as a curious coalition of Islamic clerics and parliamentarians are leading a spirited charge to get the practice of female genital mutilation decriminalised in The Gambia.<\/p>\n<p>A fortnight ago, SIC issued a statement recommending that the National Assembly repeal the law banning the practice of female genital mutilation in The Gambia.<\/p>\n<p>The latest statement from the council\u2019s fatwa committee shared reads: \u201cThe committee would like to clarify that female circumcision is not just a merely inherited custom as falsely claimed by those who are not conversant with the Islamic law. Rather, it is one of the virtues of Islam, and among the sunnah practices approved by the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, who said, \u2018Five practices are characteristics of the Fitra\u2019, of which he mentioned circumcision.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The committee said the legitimacy of female circumcision has been proven in several authentic ahadith of Prophet Muhammad.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTherefore, Muslim jurists agreed on its legality. Some jurists have even argued that female circumcision is obligatory, whereas others have considered it a recommended act of Sunnah. However, it was not reported by any of the reliable Muslim scholars denying the legality of female circumcision in the manner prescribed by the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, because the noble Shari\u2019ah does not acknowledge anything at all that causes harm to people, be it health or physical, for it\u2019s free from that!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe committee wishes to point out that the legal form of female circumcision in Islam is the cutting off of only a tiny upper part of the clitoris without removing it or touching any part of the labia, which is contrary to what is known as \u2018female genital mutilation\u2019 and does not entail the removal of the genital organ, or what is known as Pharaonic circumcision. Muslim jurists have agreed that this type (FGM) is illegal in Islam because of the harm it inflicts on women,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n<p>The committee calls on the government to reconsider the law prohibiting female circumcision, which stipulates the arrest or prosecution of anyone who practices it, \u201cgiven that we are Muslims and the most precious thing we have in this life is our true religion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe committee issued this fatwa to clarify to the people the position of the Shari\u2019ah of Allah in female circumcision and acquits itself regarding this matter before Allah on the Day of Resurrection. In the same vein, the committee also strongly condemns entities and individuals who denounce the practice of female circumcision and call on the authorities to arrest or prosecute anyone who practices it,\u201d the statement signed by the committee chairman, Dr Mbye Kebba Kah, concluded.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\">Gambia<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. The Gambia Supreme Islamic Council (SIC) Fatwa and Moon Sighting Committee has issued a fatwa to all Gambian Muslims defending the legality of female circumcision. A fatwa is a legal opinion, decree or ruling issued by an Islamic jurist or jurists. The SIC committee\u2019s fatwa came as a curious coalition of Islamic [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":44000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[2355,2361,260],"class_list":["post-44001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-culture-and-art","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-gambia","tag-gambia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Islamic Council issues fatwa in defence of female circumcision - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Gambia Supreme Islamic Council (SIC) Fatwa and Moon Sighting Committee has issued a fatwa to all Gambian Muslims ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/islamic-council-issues-fatwa-in-defence-of-female-circumcision\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Islamic Council issues fatwa in defence of female circumcision\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Gambia Supreme Islamic Council (SIC) Fatwa and Moon Sighting Committee has issued a fatwa to all Gambian Muslims ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/islamic-council-issues-fatwa-in-defence-of-female-circumcision\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-02T16:20:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-02T16:29:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/10\/sm_1696251522.141702.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/islamic-council-issues-fatwa-in-defence-of-female-circumcision#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/islamic-council-issues-fatwa-in-defence-of-female-circumcision\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Islamic Council issues fatwa in defence of female circumcision\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-02T16:20:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-02T16:29:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/islamic-council-issues-fatwa-in-defence-of-female-circumcision\"},\"wordCount\":511,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/islamic-council-issues-fatwa-in-defence-of-female-circumcision#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/10\/sm_1696251522.141702.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Gambia\",\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"culture and art\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/islamic-council-issues-fatwa-in-defence-of-female-circumcision#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/islamic-council-issues-fatwa-in-defence-of-female-circumcision\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/islamic-council-issues-fatwa-in-defence-of-female-circumcision\",\"name\":\"Islamic Council issues fatwa in defence of female circumcision - 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