tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10856048.post5190906104982546117..comments2024-03-12T12:23:10.033-04:00Comments on Secular Perspectives: The Enemy of My EnemyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10856048.post-38425886761569168052011-08-28T23:20:26.489-04:002011-08-28T23:20:26.489-04:00Religious insanity seems to know no bounds! Thank...Religious insanity seems to know no bounds! Thank you Luis, for one more of your excellent posts.Don Whartonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11874733311091724239noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10856048.post-80048986772576864302011-08-28T13:24:20.835-04:002011-08-28T13:24:20.835-04:00I should have said "there is NO medical justi...I should have said "there is NO medical justification to ban it". I accidentally omitted the "no".Explicit Atheisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05501109533475045969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10856048.post-14460337378968536312011-08-28T13:23:30.319-04:002011-08-28T13:23:30.319-04:00As far as I am aware, the Pope\Vatican has taken n...As far as I am aware, the Pope\Vatican has taken no position on male circumcision or female circumcision. Insofar as vatican radio has spoken on the issue of male circumcision at all, they appear to favor the view that this an important religious practice for non-Christians, there is medical justification to ban it, and therefore it should be legally permitted. So I don't agree with you that this one of the issues where Catholics take a position that is conflicts with Muslim practice.<br /><br />You mentioned Al-Azhar as supporting "genital mutilation" without distinguishing between male and female. So its worth mentioning that Al-Azhar University in Cairo had issued several fatwas endorsing FGM, in 1949, 1951 and 1981, but then over-ruled these with a more recent fatwa totally banning the practice. In March 2005, Dr Ahmed Talib, Dean of the Faculty of Sharia at Al-Azhar University, stated: "All practices of female circumcision and mutilation are crimes and have no relationship with Islam. Whether it involves the removal of the skin or the cutting of the flesh of the female genital organs... it is not an obligation in Islam." A recent conference at Al-Azhar University in Cairo (December, 2006) brought prominent Muslim clergy to denounce the practice as not being necessary under the umbrella of Islam.<br /><br />One of the four Sunni schools of religious law, the Shafi`i school, rules that trimming of the clitoral hood is mandatory. Sheikh Faraz Rabbani states, "That which is wajib [obligatory] in the Shafi`i texts is merely slight 'trimming' of the tip of the clitoral hood - prepuce." He states that this practice is not "FGM, nor harmful to the woman or her ability to derive sexual pleasure." He states that "excision, FGM, or other harmful practices" are not permitted. <br /><br />I disagree that this kind of trimming of the tip qualifies as "mutilation". In some instances doing this allow greater access to the clitoris during sexual stimulation and this minor surgery is sometimes done (on adult women at their own request) for that entirely secular reason in secular hospitals.Explicit Atheisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05501109533475045969noreply@blogger.com