There is a strange silence surrounding the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) on young girls. Perhaps we are too anesthetized by the legalized mutilation and death of girls (and boys) in the womb through abortion.
According to a 2012 report of the CDC, an estimated “513,000 women and girls in the United States were at risk of or had been subjected to female genital mutilation.” Amanda Parker of the Aha Foundation reports that “the increase in FGM in the U.S. is almost entirely, if not entirely, due to the increase in immigrants from countries where FGM is practiced. Somalia, Egypt, Sudan and others all have very high rates of FGM with more than 90 percent of girls in each country undergoing this abusive practice.”
In America today, FGM is illegal in only 24 states. My own state of Iowa does not outlaw this crime against women.
Why aren’t more of us speaking on behalf of little girls brutalized by FGM—or babies who feel pain during an abortion? Because both FGM and abortion have been placed in a religious and cultural context. Americans who once enjoyed civil discourse over contrasting perspectives now fear being offensive if we oppose or even question a faith or practice different from our own. To “offend” someone in America today is to risk judgment for a “hate crime.”
FGM is protected by Sharia law. Sharia law is part and parcel to the religion of Islam. With Islam’s Sharia law also comes forced marriage, honor killings, pedophilia, sexual slavery… and Sharia courts.
Christianity does not force marriage, honor murder, or defend sexual sin. Christianity understands that God wants us to first love Him and then love our neighbors as much as ourselves. Children are our littlest neighbors and we should not keep silent as they are being carried to the butcher.
Christianity understands that every boy and girl—in the womb or born—has value, not because of how their parents perceive them, but because of what Jesus did for them. To silence a voice that protests FGM or abortion is to silence the Lord who says, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine.” To silence a voice that exposes any child abuse is to silence Jesus the Shepherd who gathers the little ones in His arms.
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