As Religious Body Issues Fatwa
By: Momodou Justice Darboe
The apex Islamic body in The Gambia has come out strongly in defense of female circumcision, calling on the Gambia government to hold accountable the dissenting voices to theentrenched traditional and religious practice.
The Gambia Supreme Islamic Council (GSIC) has apparentlythrown its full weight behind those calling for the legalization of FGM in The Gambia as the debate intensified over whether or not the practice should be outlawed in the majority Muslim West African nation.
The law, criminalizing FGM/C in The Gambia has now become a matter of parliamentary scrutiny as some members of the country’s legislature maul over its durability and essence.
Female circumcision was declared illegal in the impoverished West African nation in 2015 despite some feeble opposition to it.
Unlike now, voices against female circumcision were hushed and at times, expressed with subtility probably due to the fear of reprisals from the former Gambian strongman Yahya Jammeh.
However, almost eight years after the feared former Gambian dictator left the stage, voices against the criminalization of female circumcision have once again become vociferous.
In a declaration and in what could be seen as a bit of a stretch in the grand scheme of things, the GSIC has called on the benign Barrow administration to ensure that those calling for the eradication of FGM in The Gambia face the music.
The GSIC said the legitimacy of female circumcision has been proven in several established hadiths on the authority of the Prophet of Islam.
“Therefore, 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,” said the Gambia’s umbrella Islamic body. It added that none of those, it called reliable scholars, had denied the legality of female circumcision “in the manner prescribed by the Messenger of Allah; peace be upon him”.
“In this context, the GSIC calls on the government of The Gambia to reconsider the law criminalizing female circumcision and to hold anyone who practices such accountable because, as Muslims, religion is the most precious thing we have in this life,” GSIC said on Thursday.
“The GSIC would also like to clarify that Allah has decreed female circumcision, and it, therefore, condemns quarters and individuals who denounce the practice and calls on the authorities to hold them accountable,” it added.
The GSIC said female circumcision is not “a merely inherited custom as falsely claimed by those who are clueless about Islamic law”. “Rather, it is one of the virtues of Islam and among the Sunnah practices dictated by the Messenger of Allah, Peace be Upon Him, who said: “Five practices are characteristics of the Fitra,” of which he mentioned circumcision,” it stated.
The GSIC pointed out that the legal form of female circumcision involves “cutting off only a tiny upper part of the clitoris without removing it or touching any part of the labia, which runs contrary to what is known as (FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION) and does not entail the removal of the genital organ, or what is known as Pharaonic circumcision”.
“Muslim jurists have agreed that this type is illegal because of the harm it inflicts on women,” clarified GSIC.
