tbray@mprvaxa.UUCP (Tim Bray) (09/27/85)
Been away from the net for a year or so, but I come back and find good old Martillo still at it. Martillo in Islam is about as authoritative as Don Black on Judaism. He is, on this subject, incorrect, vicious, bigoted, and not to be believed. For the record, the atrocity of female circumcision is confined to East Africa, and is not limited to any particular religious group there. Tim Bray ...ubc-vision!mprvaxa!tbray
martillo@csd2.UUCP (Joachim Martillo) (10/10/85)
I am uninterested in getting into some idiotic argument about something which is easily verifiable as fact. I suggest the interested take a look at the articles khitan and khafd (khifad) in the Encyclopedia of Islam. Khitan means circumcision (or excision) and is used indifferently for males and females. Khafd refers specifically to excision. The articles state that the various schools of Islamic jurisprudence dispute whether excision is obligatory or merely commendable. The author of the second article is clearly ashamed of the practice and tries to minimize the importance of the practice within Islamic society. The disgusting East African practice to which Bray refers is not excision but rather infibulation which has generally been condemned by Islamic religious leaders.