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| File photo: Schoolgirls |
By Fatima Muraina, Akure.
Muslim faithful have called on the Federal government to consider the societal feelings of Islamic religion concerning female circumcission and to engage skilled professionals to handle circumcission in order to avoid gentile mutilation.
An Islamic Scholar and Chief Imam, Darusalam Central Mosque, Igoba, Akure, Dr Lukman Idris Sekoni made the appeal while presenting a lecture titled “Female Circumcission (Medico-Islamic perspectives) in Akure, Ondo state.
His words:” We implored government to please look into the various processes of genital mutilation including that of the boys which should be done by a specialist health worker so that they do not fall into the hands of unskilled personnels”.
Sekoni, who spoke in the Islamic perspective said female circumcission had been in existence but was regulated with the advent of Islam.
He said Muslims do not believe in genital mutilation because God cursed those who mutilate animals let alone human beings.
A senior Registrar in the general audit department of the Federal Medical Centre, Bida, Dr Abdurahman Muhammed Taofik, who spoke on the Medical perspective of female circumcission, described the topic as having a lot of input that should be carefully handled because it has both religious and medical bias.
Taofik noted that female circumcission is not allowed medically because of the misconception about Islamic aspect of it and relating to female genital mutilation.
“Female genital mutilation as a whole is not accepted Islamically. What it means is that, is like maiming the external genitals of any female child, without any significant benefit”, he opined.
“When one is restricted to practicing what is regarded as circumcission in Islam which is just taken off the skin that covers the pectoral glands, it is something that has no health risk, so it has been shown that even if you compare those that were circumcised and those not, there is no difference”, he stressed.
According to him, there is no scientific basis that it has anything to do with satisfaction of sexal urge.
He charged those who want to do female circumcission propagated by Islam to consider that it is optional, and must have the knowledge of what is being done and to bare in mind the societal feelings.
He said the general public must understand the Muslim community and not segregate them.
He said they should focus on the fight against female genital mutilation.
The initiator of the lecture, Dr Saheed Oyelade of the Muslim Hospital Akure observed the rights of the Muslims which should be respected as he advocated for the amendment of the law to consider the Muslims.
In their reactions, Alhaja Azizat Iwalesin and Alhaji Ibrahim Ismail described the lecture as a welcome development.
While Iwalesin showed satisfaction that she could now differentiate between the circumcission and mutilation, Ismail said it should be done on a child at early birth.
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