Muslims for Progressive Values Calls on American Imams to Step Up Against Female Genital Mutilation

LOS ANGELES - June 12, 2017 - PRLog -- Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV), an international human rights grassroots organization founded in Los Angeles in 2007 and a charter NGO of the United Nations, calls for American imams to step up against Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting (FGM/C) and commends Imam Johari Abdul-Malik for resigning from Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Virginia in protest of the mosque's Senior Imam, Shaker Elsayed, who cited Female Genital Mutilation as effective in preventing "hypersexuality" in females.

MPV reiterates its strong condemnation of the practice of Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting (FGM/C), which is sometimes misleadingly differentiated from Female Circumcision. In reality, Female Circumcision and FGM/C are the same thing: the altering or injuring of female genitalia for nonmedical reasons.

Let us be absolutely clear. FGM/C has no theological basis in Islam. It is a culture that goes as far back as the days of Pharaoh, and is conveniently disguised as religious in a patriarchal system of controlling women and girls' sexuality.

MPV has long asserted that utilizing faith and culture to propagate and justify violence against women and girls is absolutely inconsistent with international human rights conventions and Islamic values. The problem is not religion, it is the mindset of the religious leaders and scholars who uphold certain misogynistic interpretations of Islam. For that reason, MPV contends that faith and culture are, at their core, beautiful and life-affirming things that can and should be used as vehicles for sustainable development in accordance with international human rights law. The challenge consists in putting an end to FGM/C by debunking the myths that justify its practice.

In addition, MPV calls on the Muslim leadership in America to issue a fatwa condemning and making FGM/C obsolete once and for all. We also call upon American imams to go beyond lip-service and to join our global team of  #ImamsForShe Champions, who actively advocate for women and girls' rights.

To learn more about Muslims for Progressive Values' #ImamsForShe initiative, please visit: http://www.mpvusa.org/imamsforshe/