bestcurrentnews 2024 Ramadan Prayer

A Global Look at FGM

In observance of International Women’s Day on March 8, 2024, UNICEF released a report entitled Female Genital Mutilation: A Global Concern. The report provides new global statistics on the practice. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) refers to the practice of partially or totally removing the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons.

Compared to data from 2016, there is a 15% increase in the number of girls and women who have undergone the procedure. This means the total number of girls and women worldwide affected by FGM is now over 230 million, 30 million more than in 2016.

The majority of FGM victims are in Africa, with over 144 million cases, followed by over 80 million in Asia and over 6 million in the Middle East. The type of FGM varies, but most girls experience cutting with the removal of flesh. The most severe form of FGM is a procedure in which the genital area is sown closed. Each year, over half a million girls experience this extreme form of FGM, primarily in the nations of Sudan and Somalia. 

In most nations, the procedure is frequently performed without anesthesia by people without medical training; however, Sudan and Egypt are the exceptions. In those nations, medical workers (doctors, nurses, and midwives) perform the majority of procedures. 

Although FGM predates Islam and is practiced by people from different religious backgrounds, some Islamic scholars support and encourage FGM. Many Muslims believe that the failure to perform the procedure on their daughters will bring shame to the family. 

PRAYER

Many of us live in nations where this would never be practiced and recognize it as a   violent and invasive practice in a young girl’s life, causing permanent damage and ruining any future intimate enjoyment in marriage. The cultures have a spiritual stronghold where this is approved and practiced. Based upon II Corinthians 10:4-5, God has declared that “our weapons in God are mighty for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought (of those who are blinded) into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” Take a moment to pray for the perpetrators, using the authority Christ has given us! Your prayers will make a difference in the lives of these young girls and women.

bestcurrentnews Uncategorized

Repeal of FGM Ban in Gambia

The West African nation of Gambia may be the first nation to repeal a ban on female genital mutilation or FGM in a vote taking place next Monday, March 25. The bill is reportedly backed by religious conservatives in the majority Muslim nation, stating that “it seeks to uphold religious purity and safeguard cultural norms and values.” Gambia’s top Islamic group has called the practice “one of the virtues of Islam.”

The procedure often occurs in honor-based cultures. The mutilation of a woman’s genitalia is intended to maintain family honor by preserving a woman’s virginity until marriage. The intended result is to reduce her sexual drive to ensure she will not engage in premarital or extramarital sexual behavior. It can, however, cause short-term problems, including shock, bleeding, infection, and injury to nearby tissue immediately following the procedure, and can also have long-term effects such as recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections, infertility, and complications during intercourse and childbirth.

The United Nations estimates that more than half of women ages 15 to 49 in the Gambia have undergone the procedure, and even though the current law passed in 2015 banned the practice, only two cases have been prosecuted.

PRAYER

Gambia is a nation that only has a small representative of women (8.6%) in their National Assembly; the vast majority are men. The women have no say in the repeal of this law that institutes FGM again, has no health benefits, and can lead to serious, long-term complications and even death. 

  • Pray the hearts of the Islamic men will be softened to stop this repeal of the ban.
  • Ask God to intervene on behalf of the women to protect them from this violent act. 
  • Intercede, praying that the revelation of Jesus Christ as Lord will be revealed across the nation.
bestcurrentnews 2016 Ramadan Prayer

FGM: Forced Sexual Honor

2016 Ramadan GraphicFemale genital mutilation (FGM) often occurs in honor-based cultures. The mutilation of a woman’s genitalia is intended to maintain family honor by preserving a woman’s virginity until marriage. The intended result is to reduce her sexual drive to ensure she will not engage in premarital or extramarital sexual behavior.

The AHA Foundation reports that FGM is often performed on girls between the ages of 4 and 14. The number of girls in the United States under the age of 18 that are at risk for FGM has quadrupled since 1997. The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that as many as 513,000 women and girls are currently at risk of FGM in the United States.

In 1996, a U.S. federal law was passed criminalizing the practice of FGM, and in 2013 the law was amended to also outlaw “vacation cutting,” which is the practice of taking a girl to another country to undergo the procedure. In addition, 24 U.S. states have their own laws outlawing the FGM.

UNICEF estimates that at least 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone FGM. These numbers increased by nearly 70 million more than was estimated in 2014 after new data was collected in Indonesia. The data revealed that Indonesia is one of the countries where FGM is most prevalent even though the practice was banned in 2006. In fact, women in Indonesia, Egypt and Ethiopia account for half of all the FGM victims worldwide. The nation with the highest prevalence of FGM is Somalia with 98% of women and girls in the nation having undergone FGM.

The World Health Organization reports that FGM has no health benefits. It can, however, cause short-term problems including shock, bleeding, infection and injury to nearby tissue immediately following the procedure and can also have long-term effects such as recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections, infertility, and complications during intercourse and childbirth.

FGM is practiced for a number of reasons. Some cultures have wrongly taught that the clitoris will continue to grow, and therefore it needs to be removed. Others have been taught the external genitalia are unclean and can cause the death of an infant during delivery.

Many Muslims believe that the failure to perform FGM on their daughters will bring shame to the family. Surveys in Middle Eastern nations have shown that FGM is considered to be both a traditional and religious practice. These attitudes and practices follow immigrants to their new nations, along with their “shame/honor” mindset if the immigrant happens to be Muslim.

Increasingly, those that have undergone FGM within Islamic cultures are stopping the practice, and there are brave Muslim women that are speaking out against FGM despite the fact that female sexuality is rarely spoken of in Muslim cultures. However, prayer and awareness is still needed because there is often great pressure from Islamic families to continue the tradition so the family will not experience “shame.”

Although it is certainly true FGM predates Islam and is still practiced by people from different religious backgrounds; there are Islamic shari’a scholars who support and encourage FGM. The “Reliance of the Traveller: A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law” specifically addresses female circumcision. The International Institute of Islamic Thought, the Fiqh Council of North America and the prestigious Islamic Al-Azhar University have endorsed this manual. This shari’a law text states, “Circumcision is obligatory (O: for both men and women) (Reliance e4.3, p. 59

Prayer Points:

Ask God to move on hearts, softening them to His love and truth, and giving them understanding and a new mind-set that the practice of FGM brings trauma and pain in the lives of their women and girls.

Pray for the parents of young girls that may be under tremendous pressure from their families and communities who are encouraging them to circumcise their daughters. Pray they will not give into the community pressure – and receive God’s revelation that the “honorable” thing will be to reject female circumcision.

bestcurrentnews 2014 Ramadan Prayer

Leaving Islam

2014 Ramadan Prayer Day 12Amal Farah has not spoken to her family since 2005 after she told them she was leaving the Islamic faith. She believes if she still lived in her native Somalia, rather than in Britain, she might actually be dead for leaving Islam. She shared her story with The Telegraph for the first time after reading about Mariam Ibrahim, the Sudanese woman that remains trapped in Sudan after being released from prison for refusing to renounce her Christian faith.

Amal’s father was a high-ranking general in the Somali army and very secular. A landmine killed him when Amal was only three years old. After the death of her father, Amal says her mother became more religious. “We were all Muslims, of course, but the older I got the more I was told to pray, to wear conservative clothes and so on. …I disliked being told what to do, like being forced to wear the hijab. I dreamt of having control over my own life.”

This loss of control became quite tangible when her mother prepared her to be circumcised. She says, “I was really scared, and she was talking about how it was religious purification – an essential rite. I asked if there was anything I could do to change her mind, and she said no. I think that’s when I realized that I hated this feeling of powerlessness.”

Amal began to question her faith even more as she attended a British university. “I met atheists, staunch Christians, Jews, Hindus – they challenged me about my views, and I about theirs. It was an incredible sensation to be able to ask questions, and discuss ideas without fear, without looking over my shoulder. I had been in a cocoon- unquestioning, with everyone told they had to think the same way.”

She read different translations of the Qur’an and listened to tapes of imams from other nations such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, but ultimately she made the decision that Islam was not for her. Her mother was heartbroken with her decision and told her that she was going to hell. Amal describes her mother as feeling guilty that had daughter had left Islam, and also as “very, very angry.”Apostasy in Reliance of the Traveller

Her mother believed exposing her daughter to “corrupt Western ways” had cause her to abandon Islam, and she moved with the rest of her family back to Somalia in order to ensure that her other children remained Muslim.

Prayer Points

The experience of many young women in Islam is similar to the life of Amal – as a Muslim, they are disenchanted with the control over their lives. Pray that many young Muslims will find themselves in a position of safety where they are able to ask questions and explore their faith without fear.

Ask God to equip Christian students on college campuses to understand the fundamental differences between Christianity and Islam that will enable them to have encouraging and truthful conversations with other students.

Oftentimes Muslims who leave the Islamic faith have a distorted view of God and it is difficult for them to be open to the Christian faith. Pray that the Lord will divinely connect the Christians with Muslims who are open to truth, empowering the Christians to stand strong in their faith and share the gospel without compromise.

bestcurrentnews 2014 Ramadan Prayer

Summer – The “Cutting Season”

 

2014 Ramadan Prayer Day 5Summer break is the time when most children enjoy time away from school. Many of us have happy memories of those days from our childhoods. However, with increased immigration of Muslims into western nations, there is a growing population of schoolgirls that will not remember their summer as a time of happiness. In fact, for some young girls the summer holiday is known as the “cutting season,” because it is the time of year when many young girls undergo FGM – female genital mutilation. FGM refers to the practice of partially or totally removing the external female genitalia, for non-medical reasons.

The procedure is frequently performed without anesthesia by people without any medical training, and with instruments such as scalpels, pieces of broken glass and tin can lids. The practice has no health benefits and can cause health problems including “severe bleeding and problems urinating, and later cysts, infections, infertility as well as complications in childbirth,” according to the World Health Organization.

One young Kenyan woman describes her experience; “Innocently like a sheep to be taken to a slaughter house, one woman came and told me that I should wake up as it was my day to become a woman…. By that time my mother was nowhere to be seen, at least to see the state I was in and to help me. … According to my community during this fateful day, your mother is not supposed to be present as they believe you will cry and call her for help and as a woman who bears the pain of giving birth, a mother can’t stand to see the pain that you are going through. …they took a piece of cloth, tied it around my eyes and held my head back and then they gave me another piece which they put in my mouth so that I could bite it during the whole process to ease the pain. Two women held my legs and hands so tight that I could not move. Then I felt a very sharp pain between my legs. This was a turning point in my life. The pain I felt can’t be described; thinking of it brings cold shivers inside me.”

Worldwide the UN estimates that 6,000 girls and women are circumcised every day with 140 million women currently living with the consequences of FGM. The countries with the highest rates of FGM are Muslim majority countries even though the practice predates Islam, and is practiced by people from other religious backgrounds.

Even though the practice predates Islam and is practiced by people from other religious backgrounds, the highest incidence of FGM is in Muslim majority countries such as Indonesia (86%), Sudan (89%), and Egypt (90%).

FGM-protestIt is important to realize that many of the victims in western nations are immigrants who had the procedure done while still living in their former nation. British authorities estimate that more than 20,000 girls under the age of 15 are at high risk of FGM (female genital mutilation) in England and Wales. The European parliament estimates that 500,000 girls and women in the European Union are living with FGM with approximately another 180,000 girls in Europe at risk of undergoing the procedure. Britain has had at least 66,000 women and girls who have experienced this practice and Australia’s Melbourne Royal Women’s Hospital reported approximately 700 cases of FGM. Between 150-200,000 of women and girls in the United States are at risk of having this done. The practice has increased by 35% in the U.S. since 1996. Again, the majority has experienced this procedure before they immigrated to the western nation.

Most Western nations have laws against the practice of FGM, and the United States and Britain have laws prohibiting the transporting of a girl abroad for the purpose of undergoing FGM.

Prayer Points:

As difficult as it is to hear of this, it is so important that we as believers declare that communities will be awakened to the horrors of this cultural practice and realize the harm this procedure can cause women. Pray that those who have undergone the procedure will have the courage to speak out clearly so others do not have to suffer.

Pray that the authorities in western nations will have the necessary laws in place to be able to stop those who attempt to take their daughters abroad to be circumcised.

This procedure is physically painful and emotionally traumatizing. God has promised them in Psalm 147:3 that, “He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.” Ask the Lord to bring His healing and comfort to the victims of FGM and reveal His Son Jesus to their hearts.

 

bestcurrentnews ReCap

ReCap March 2013

ReCap LogoWelcome to the March edition of Best Current News’ ReCap series – brief summaries of selected articles chosen to keep you informed of threats to traditional Judeo-Christian values and western culture by Islamists. In each synopsis there are links provided to the original sources to provide you with more information.

United States: Hafiz Khan, imam of the Flagler Mosque in Miami, Florida was convicted by a federal jury of providing more than $50,00 to the Pakistani Taliban. Sentencing will be May 30, 2013.

United States: Ahmed Ferhani was sentenced to 10 years in prison for plotting to blow up synagogues in Manhattan. Ferhani said, “By targeting a synagogue…I intended to create chaos and send a message of intimidation and coercion to the Jewish population of New York City, warning them to stop mistreating Muslims.”

United States: A report released by Sanctuary for Families discloses the risk for a female in the United States to undergo female genital mutilation, the partial or total removal of the female external genitalia, increased by 35%. The U.S. has had a law against FGM since 1996, but as of 2012 there have been no prosecutions under federal law and only one criminal case brought forward through state law.

United States: The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) president, Mohamed Magid joined 10 other leaders in a conversation with President Obama about immigration reform. Magid also took part in a meeting with the President to give “recommendations” in preparation for President Obama’s Middle East trip. ISNA remains an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorism financing trial in U.S. history that was held in Dallas, Texas in 2008.

United States – Syria: Pending Congressional approval, John Kerry committed the U.S. to sending nonlethal aid to the Free Syrian Army, the armed faction that is battling to remove President Bashar al-Assad. The U.S. also pledged $60 million to help the anti-Assad group improve services to Syrians such as sanitation and education in areas it has already taken from the government. The $60 million is in addition to more then $50 million that has already been sent. Britain is also planning to send more nonlethal aid, and is consulting with other European nations regarding the type of aid they could send.

United States – Egypt:  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced the release of $250 million in American aid to support Egypt’s “future as a democracy” after meeting with, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. This is part of more than $1 billion in U.S. assistance promised by President Barack Obama to Egypt last year.

United States – Palestine: The U.S. has unblocked almost $500 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority, which had been frozen by Congress for months after President Mahmud Abbas won upgraded UN observer status at the UN General Assembly in November.

United States – Jordan: President Obama pledged an additional $200 million to deal with the growing number of Syrian refugees in Jordan pending Congressional approval. The U.S. is already the largest single donor of assistance to Syrian refugees.

Europe: Muslim gang rapes across Europe are under reported in the press due to political correctness. One report indicated that as many as 5,000 gang rapes occur in France alone each year. One particular gruesome case involved a 29-year-old Swedish mother of two who was raped by 12 Afghan refugees. The rape marathon lasted for seven hours during which the woman went into shock. She now lives in a psychiatric clinic and is wheelchair bound due to damage to her abdomen and suffers from fecal incontinence.

Belgium:  Politicians submitted a proposal in front of the Belgian Parliament to impeach or limit the influence of Muslim extremists in power, arguing that ultra-conservative Muslim beliefs are inconsistent with the European Convention on Human Right’s laws. According to recent estimates six percent of the Belgium population is Muslim.

France: A trial began for Bouchra Bagour, a French Muslim mother for “glorifying crime.” She was charged after sending her three-year-old son, named Jihad to nursery school wearing a shirt with the words “I am a bomb” on the front and “Jihad, born on 11 September” on the back.

Germany:  Three ultra-conservative Salafist Muslim groups were banned in Germany. Salafists are a militant group of Muslims who believe themselves the only correct interpreters of the Qur’an and consider moderate Muslims to be infidels. The banned groups wanted to overturn the German democracy and install a system based on sharia or Islamic law.

United Kingdom: The UK government is considering reviving plans to sell Islamic bonds to boost Britain’s role as a center for Sharia compliant financing. Zakat (which oftentimes funds terrorism) is required in order for a financial instrument to be considered sharia compliant.

Australia: Four men were found guilty of assault in an Australian court after they whipped a Muslim convert with an electric cord as punishment under sharia (Islamic) law.  His religious mentor and three other Islamic men punished the convert for drinking alcohol and taking drugs.

Australia: Cadbury Easter eggs are certified as halal (or permissible according to Islamic law) despite the fact Muslims do not celebrate Easter. A website called Halal Choices lists 340 companies in Australia that pay for halal certification of their products including Coles, Woolworths, Aldi, Franklins, Kellogg’s, MasterFoods, Nestle and Kraft’s Vegemite. Many companies pay for halal certification for products that do not require certification because in some cases their customers require the certification.

Malaysia: 27 people were killed after two deadly shootouts in Sabah on Borneo Island after an estimated 100 to 300 Islamic Filipino intruders claimed the state on behalf of the heir to a former Philippine sultanate. Follower of Islamic leader Jamalul Kiram III claim they are ready to die to defend his the Sultan’s claim to Sabah which was once controlled by the now-defunct sultanate.

Bangladesh: Jamaat-e-Islami supporters in Bangladesh are calling for a reunification with Pakistan and the creation of a “pure” state, free of non-Muslims. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party is supporting the group, and calling for the current government to resign.  Jamaat has begun handing out weapons to women and children to “save Islam and its soul from danger.” They are calling for Hindus, atheists and Christians to be expelled from the nation. Within the first week of March, 87 people have died – mostly police and peaceful protesters.

Nigeria: Boko Haram, a militant Islamic group allegedly destroyed 50 out of 52 Catholic churches in Borno state in Nigeria. Since its founding in 2001, the group has been responsible for between 3,000 and 10,000 deaths.