96% of Muslim girls in Indonesia are not circumcised. It is not that common. Debra, your anti Islamic post is of grave concern. It insults Islam. You owe us an apology. You may want to consult the Nation of Islam's web site and be instructed by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan concerning the true nature of Islam. "There are many who hate His truth, and there are many who do not believe that God visited us and raised the Honorable Elijah Muhammad for us, so we have enemies within and without; enemies in the government of the United States; and enemies among some of the most powerful Satanic minds in America and the world. And since I am trying to carry out the mission of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, those who feared the success of his mission have in their hearts a desire to destroy Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam."

We need to stop labeling every criticism of any action by someone who is a believer in Islam as anti-Islamic. We can abhor the actions of anyone who mutilates children in any way (male or female) just because it is a custom that they cannot remember ever not following.

Similarly, customs that are labeled Islamic, such as total subjugation of women, should be seen as deriving from the cultures in which Islam originated, not from Islam itself. Many religions and cultures around the world ascribe their customs of dress and behavior to divine decree, when they are actually local or personal preferences that have become institutionalized.

It also needs to be pointed out that Type IV FGM is widely practised in Indonesia which is much more ritualistic and may account for why there was little evidence of blood. Type I is also carried out and this often does remove part of the clitoris itself. In spite of what many people think, the clitoris is an extensive organ extending well inside the body and this fact is the basis of the reconstructive surgery for FGM victims performed by Dr Foldes in France.
Finally, I'd just like to add to what Maryam says: FGM is not an Islamic tradition. It originated well before Islam or Christianity, and is practiced by some Christians, Jews and Animists in some areas. Wikipedia has a very good article but I don't know if links are allowed here.

Two Things:

1. Mojo needs a spam filter.

2. Maybe the way to make female genital mutilation matter the West is to take it out of the African (i.e. savage) context. Did you know that Indonesia has the largest population of Muslims? That 96% of girls there are circumcised, many not even a year old?

What planet are you living on where Muslims haven't been similarly stereotyped?

dnA your post is racist. To equate mother Africa with "savage" is racist. You should go post on David Duke's or Stormfront's website these type of comments. Africa is the fountain of civilization. The Muslims were the slave traders in Africa. They sold the brothers to the White Devils(not all whites are devils, only the ones that are possessed). You Crackers just wait until February and then you will hear a lot from me.

Homie, you need to learn to read.

1. I'm black.

2. My point was that Muslims are stereotyped as "savages" these days as often as Africans are.

3. Learn to read.

This statement in the NYT article caught my eye: "Meanwhile, in a nearby building, more than 100 boys underwent a traditional circumcision as well."

While the term FGM can be applied to what amounts to "a practitioner rubbing turmeric on the genitals or pricking the clitoris once with a needle to draw a symbolic drop of blood", the term 'male genital mutilation' is seldom seen in public forums, even though the removal of the foreskin destroys 80% of the sensory structure of the penis.

Indeed, we see this comment from an obstetrician: "Any distinction between injuring the clitoris or the clitoral hood is irrelevant". This suggests that any kind of insult to a girls anatomy is unethical, and I agree 100%, but the same obstetrician then goes on to say "the circumcision of boys .. has demonstrated health benefits", as if that silences all doubt.

It seems to me that a double standard is at work here. The 'health benefits' of male circumcision remain extremely controversial, while 'health benefits' are also claimed for FGM, as the article states.

The stark truth is, 'health benefits' in no way ameliorate the ethical problems inherent in performing *unnecessary*, irreversible reductive surgery on a subject who is unable to consent, be it a boy or a girl.

I think opposition to FGM would be far more coherent and powerful if it addressed the problem of genital mutilation of children in general, and left the categorical gendercasting to chauvinists and feminists.

It should be interesting to note that in Indonesia less than 90% of citizens are Muslim according to national statistics. The survey showing 96% of girls are circumcised might be misleading but also might carry over to other religions...

The Jews started circumcision so the penis would look larger, compared to the Syrians(It mentions in the Hebrew Bible that the Syrians male member was like a horse). What else has changed over the last 3000 years. Mine is bigger than yours. Grow up.

The picture 4 tells what lines and lines of text can’t tell. Indonesia is not some kind of isolated tribal hellhole, it’s a relatively westernized and urbanized nation, as far as I know. So is truly shocking to discover this kind of barbarism happening in one of Java most important cities.

This mutilation of women MUST stop. There is no tradition or religion to justify this insult to health and personal choice.

And most ununderstandable is the fact that all the procedure is made WITHOUT anesthesia. It seems like the intention is to traumatize women in relation to her own bodies and to sex, and that is completely absurd.

Indonesia, differently from the tyrannies of Middle east, is reasonably democratic nowadays, so there is hope that international campaings and pressure can stop the mass female mutilation.

In the USA, honor killings are a problem. While fathers are commonly responsible for honor killings, they often act in concert with their daughters' brothers, uncles, and even female relatives. For infringements upon a Muslim daughter's "honor" constitute the greatest humiliation possible to the religious and tribal tradition from which many such immigrant families emerged. Acts that demand "punishment" include refusing to wear a hijab (or headscarf), having non-Muslim boyfriends or male friends of any origin, being sexually active, rejecting arranged marriages, aggressively seeking employment and education, and, more than anything else, attempting to assimilate into Western culture.

It shouldn't be known as female genital mutilation, it is circumcision. It is a ritual. Western feminists want to impose their 'consciousness' on that of non-western women, (oh, how welcomed!). First of all, Western ideas of health are relative. Second of all, Western ideas of aesthetics are relative. Don't be bigots.

Sharif, I guess you also support honor killings because us feminists are against it.

No, because honor killings aren't widespread. Stop concentrating on how backwards brown people are. Look at yourselves. When you measure aesthetics by your own privileged/American/bourgeois/Euro-centric standards, you don't see the shades of gray in between; reanalyze your own racist, (to be understood as some sort of universalist tendency to 'liberate'), morality.

FGM is indeed not invented by Islam, and practised among jews and Christians, however among Christians it did not expand beyond Europe. FGM among Muslims exists in parts of Iraq, Jordan,Syria and an Islamic sect Bohra in India and Pakistan, not to mention Indonesia and Malaysia.