***NEWS RELEASE*** For Immediate Release June 28, 2017 CONTACT: Beth Harrison, Hamilton Strategies, 610.584.1096, ext. 104, [email protected], or Deborah Hamilton, 215.815.7716, 610.584.1096, ext. 102 Eyes of the Nation on Maine Female Genital Mutilation Bill Vote; Sponsor to Make Impassioned Plea to Maine Legislature Rep. Heather Sirocki Urges Fellow Lawmakers to…
A constitutional law expert contends religious freedom is no justification for upholding the genital mutilation of young girls. Three people, including a doctor, face charges in Detroit federal court for performing the mutilations. All three are members of the Shia Muslim sect Dawoodi Bohra. Well-known liberal civil rights attorney Alan…
Criminal defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz explains why he’s part of the legal defense team of FGM practitioners under federal prosecution in Detroit. Dershowitz claims he’s advising three defendants accused of mutilating the genitals of two 7-year-old girls in order to help curtail the practice of FGM. “Alan Dershowitz is advising a…
A Virginia mosque leader’s pro-FGM video has plunged the local religious community in turmoil. Imam Shaker Elsayed, longtime leader of the Dar-al Hijrah Islamic Center outside Washington, DC, is now “on leave” after his spokesman quit over the outrage surrounding Elsayed’s May 19 video endorsing female genital mutilation. Another imam…
A Michigan doctor facing trial for FGM may have mutilated the genitals of up to 100 girls, federal prosecutors say. The mutilations allegedly occurred “during a 12-year conspiracy,” according to prosecutors seeking to keep the doctor and two assistants behind bars until their October trial, the Detroit News reports. “Due…
An influential Muslim cleric in Virginia made a video presentation endorsing female genital mutilation. FGM is a good way to prevent “hypersexuality” and is “the honorable thing to do – if needed – for girls,” Imam Shaker Elsayed stated in the video. Elsayed heads the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in…
Famed defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz has joined the legal team of two Islamic physicians being prosecuted in Michigan for mutilating the genitals of little girls. “This is the first such case prosecuted in the United States,” Heat Street reports. “The defense team is expected to make a two-pronged argument, saying…
Female genital mutilation in the US has “more than tripled” in the past two decades, CNN reports. This tripling coincides with the rise of immigration from countries and cultures where FGM is a common practice. “Since 1990, the estimated number of girls and women in the US who have undergone…
by Tasneem Raja, Mother Jones, April 21, 2017 “‘This story isn’t going away,’ said one friend over the phone. We both grew up in the same controversial, secretive South Asian Muslim sect as the doctor, a 44-year-old emergency room physician named Jumana Nagarwala who was born in Washington, DC. ‘This…
“Combating FGM/C in Muslim communities therefore is not an act of anti-Muslim xenophobia or ‘Islamophobia,’” Qantas Ahmed writes in the Daily Beast. “It is a defense of human rights and the duty of every American to stop. The practice of FGM/C is not religious freedom.” by Qantas Ahmed, The Daily…