Genital Mutilation: A British Reality

From the desk of The Brussels Journal on Fri, 2008-01-04 12:37

A quote from the Daily Mail, 3 January 2008

By conservative estimates, 66,000 women and girls living in Britain have been mutilated. This figure, accepted by the Metropolitan Police, came in a report by a volunteer organisation funded by the Department of Health and carried out with academics from the London School of Tropical Hygiene and the City University.

And thousands more girls are at imminent risk as families club together to fly professional "cutters" from Africa to Britain. These women "elders" perform the crude operation for up to £40 a time, often on kitchen tables or floors, without anaesthetic, using filthy, blunt knives, razor blades or scalpels. […]

[G]enital mutilation is a reality, and the Metropolitan police is so concerned that it recently set up a special unit to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators. Heading the unit is Detective Inspector Carol Hamilton, […]

We found that at least one London council declined to publish material highlighting the suffering and danger the practice causes - for fear of offending ethnic African residents. […] Together with the Waris Dirie Foundation, an international campaign group formed by the Somali-born supermodel who suffered genital mutilation as a five-year-old child, the Met announced a £20,000 reward last July for information leading to the conviction of anyone who performs or abets cutting.

Under the 2003 Female Genital Mutilation Act, those involved could be jailed for 14 years. Yet the fact that no one has been prosecuted says much about the problems the police are facing. "There are thousands of girls being cut in your country," says Waris Dirie spokesman Walter Hutschinger. "We are sure it's going on, and on a very big scale. Your law is one of the most comprehensive in the world, but it is useless if nobody will help to implement it. […]

"I met one group of Somalis and got the message that cutting was even stronger here than in Somalia," [Detective Inspector Hamilton] says. "Here, it seems, they feel the need to keep their traditions going. [...]

In this age of political correctness, no doubt, factions in Britain will argue that such interventionist activity is discriminatory and a breach of human rights. There will also be those who believe female genital mutilation to be an issue for the African community to resolve, arguing that our overstretched police and health professionals have more pressing matters to address.

Detective Inspector Hamilton was persuaded otherwise when she sat through a graphic video showing a cutter at work. With its haunting screams and bloodied instruments, this real-life horror film changed her life. "These little girls shouldn't have to live in that other world," she says. "They go to school here. Their homes and friends are here. They are our little girls. They are British. What is happening to them is barbaric – and it must be stopped."

female circumcision

Submitted by dave on Sat, 2008-01-12 11:35.

@traveller
Anglican
@atheling
I don't tell you what to read.
@marcfrans
Male circumcision is not as terrible as female circumcision but both are equally retrograde.

@ dave

Submitted by traveller on Sat, 2008-01-12 12:30.

Thanks.
Male circumcision was medically necessary in those days and in that climate. I have seen infections under the foreskin, due to unclean lifestyles, which were horrifying. It chokes the head of the penis by the swelling foreskin and when they make the incision to remove the puss, the puss jumps 3 to 4 meters due to the built-up tension.
You can imagine in those old days. Further the foreskin has no real function except to protect the glans perhaps.
Female circumcision is the removal of the 2 pairs of lips and the clitoris and those bodyparts do really, really have body-functions, I think you know which ones.
The male circumcision has no selfish ideology behind except for avoiding infections, the female circumcision has the male dominance behind it and the fact that the woman should not have any erotic feelings or desires whatsoever, only the duty to serve as breeding machine for her husband and exclusively for him, since she cannot, theoretically, be attracted to other males anymore.
The fact that she is fed up with the bastard doesn't even come into the equation.
If you would have been muslim I would have driven the real truth through your throat that nowhere in the coran you can even find the slightest hint to justify this barbaric tradition.
If God, or Allah, didn't want the woman to have pleasure he wouldn't have created the female with those parts.
But for God's sake, don't talk lightly about those things, it destroys the life of a real woman and makes them into spermtanks and breeding incubators. Have some respect for a human being please.

Atheling # 2

Submitted by marcfrans on Fri, 2008-01-11 16:34.

@ dave

 

Nobody is perfect.  Not you, not me, and neither is Ayaan Hirsi Ali.  But, you are being disingenuous when you dismiss her writings on this subject as "Somali fiction", and you are fooling yourself if you want to equate "genital mutilation" (especially the Somali kind) with "circumcision".

@ dave

Submitted by traveller on Fri, 2008-01-11 23:14.

Are you muslim?
It's not that I am shy but before I comment on what you wrote before I first want to know if you are a muslim.
I will still comment if you prefer not to answer me but my comment will then be different.

@atheling

Submitted by dave on Fri, 2008-01-11 08:52.

I don't read much somali fiction and bad art is just bad art. Of course circumcision is ridiculous but we do allow it.

@Dave

Submitted by atheling on Fri, 2008-01-11 18:37.

dave:

Talk about prejudicial. Keeping your head in the sand only exposes your A**.

"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.” – Thomas Paine

@dave

Submitted by atheling on Tue, 2008-01-08 07:11.

It's really more like getting "carved". Read Ayaan Hirsi Ali's account.

The bottom line is . . .

Submitted by Morgan on Mon, 2008-01-07 06:07.

. . . there are still women in Britain who are subjected to this barbaric practice, and it needs to be prosecuted to the full extent of British law. And once more, word about female genital mutilation and how brutal it is should and must be spread. Geography and nationality by themselves are irrelevant. The actions and the damage done to these girls are.

To Morgan

Submitted by Taurus689 on Tue, 2008-01-08 05:38.

Maybe the prosecution should include genital mutilation of the men who do this. I'd wager that such a practice would result in a precipitous drop in the number of rapes committed by these wonderful people that Europeans insist on welcoming to their countries.

Two wrongs may not make a right but, on the other hand, neither does ONE wrong.

You might lose your wager

Submitted by Morgan on Wed, 2008-01-09 02:18.

Sounds like a great idea, Taurus689, but unless there is a part of Muslim culture I'm not familiar with concerning primitive male castration, I don't see it as much of a deterrent. Poetic justice, yes, but sadly not much else.

a good deterrent

Submitted by Armor on Wed, 2008-01-09 07:23.

" I don't see it as much of a deterrent "

--> unless you do it as a preventive policy, before they have children.

@atheling

Submitted by onecent on Sat, 2008-01-05 02:16.

"They would probably raise a ruckus only if the person grilling the body parts was white!"

Right on, but, consider the lefty Nanny State's conundrum with cannibalism, a few notches above the ignorable honor killings and FGM.  As a cheap protein unit, an affirmation of multi-culti tolerance and carbon unit offset, I'm sure you would find many Nanny State liberals applauding the cannibal menu.

Besides my sarcasm, my point is that anyone not finding vile what the socialist elite have inflicted on Europe is beyond braindead.  Anyone think that the entry of one more Somalian into Britain isn't a sick farse?

African ways

Submitted by Armor on Fri, 2008-01-04 23:33.

" 66,000 women and girls living in Britain have been mutilated. "

I suppose the police shoud try to put a stop to that. But I don't really think Europeans should worry about the well-being of Africans living in Europe more than they worry about the well-being of Africans living in Africa. In fact, Africans living in Europe should be expelled.

Policewoman: "They go to school here. Their homes and friends are here. They are our little girls. They are British."

Actually, they are not British at all, except that they live in Britain.

Double Standards

Submitted by atheling on Sat, 2008-01-05 00:21.

Re Armor:

"I suppose the police shoud try to put a stop to that. But I don't really think Europeans should worry about the well-being of Africans living in Europe more than they worry about the well-being of Africans living in Africa. In fact, Africans living in Europe should be expelled."

Your double standard, i.e. one law for Europeans, one law for non-Europeans who live on European soil, makes you no different from the Lefty PC crowd - other than your respective reasons.

Think about it. That's the reason WHY Europe is in this mess!

double standards

Submitted by Armor on Sat, 2008-01-05 00:46.

I have a double standard based on nationality and you have a double standard based on geography. I think my double standard makes more sense than yours.

@Armor

Submitted by atheling on Sat, 2008-01-05 01:01.

No Armor, you don't understand. I'm talking about application of law. If Europeans do not demand that their immigrants obey European laws, then you will have chaos, as we see now.

Genital Mutilation: A British Reality

Submitted by Armor on Sat, 2008-01-05 01:25.

The article is not only about application of law. It says it is awful to think that such crimes are being committed in Britain (just read the headline). I don't think it makes any difference where it happens. I would start to worry if the English began practicing sexual mutilations on their children. But so far, it is only done by African immigrants. So, there is nothing to be surprised about. If those little girls had stayed in Africa, their situation would not be any better, and the English would not be expected to lose any sleep over it. No one should expect that Africans who settle in Britain will give up all of their traditions overnight. I agree that the police should try to get immigrants to obey the law. But I disagree with the idea that Africans should be considered as English or British.

@Armor... again

Submitted by atheling on Sat, 2008-01-05 03:16.

No wonder Europe is in the state it's in. You have the loons on the Left who are moral relativists and who have no sense of right and wrong.

And then you have people like you and Kapitein Andre who are moral relativists and who have no sense of right and wrong.

You're hardly a member of the human race with your amoral position... more like being an animal with some self consciousness.

leftist posturing

Submitted by Armor on Sat, 2008-01-05 04:12.

"You're hardly a member of the human race with your amoral position... more like being an animal with some self consciousness."

Thank you! In fact, I think that mutilating people is wrong. But I don't think it is worse for Africans to do their mutilating in England than in Africa (as long as they only mutilate members of their own families).
That article tries to have it both ways. Because it comes from the Daily Mail, it takes the right-wing position that we should not accept barbaric behavior from African immigrants. But at the same time, they feel they must teach us a civics lesson. They try to sound superior by showing us how sensitive, humane, and caring they are. They pretend to be shocked that African immigrants behave like Africans. And they make the absurd claim that those African people are British. I think it is only leftist posturing. I don't believe that Detective Inspector Hamilton, or the Daily Mail journalists, or Poster Atheling are kinder and more humane than me.

Apathy

Submitted by atheling on Sat, 2008-01-05 04:23.

Armor says:

"But I don't think it is worse for Africans to do their mutilating in England than in Africa (as long as they only mutilate members of their own families)."

Obviously you no longer care for Europe, because you no longer know what European greatness was, and nor do you care if that greatness dies along with your civilization.

"I don't believe that Detective Inspector Hamilton, or the Daily Mail journalists, or Poster Atheling are kinder and more humane than me."

Nor should you. "Kindness" and "humaneness" are not strictly virtues, particularly the Leftist version of them. I make no claims to either, however I have not also sold my soul to apathy, bitterness and despair.

propaganda

Submitted by Armor on Sat, 2008-01-05 20:44.

If "66,000 women and girls living in Britain have been mutilated", it means that millions have received the same treatment in Africa. That's why there are European organizations working in Africa to stop the practice of "female circumcision". People who are concerned about that can give them money. Now, I agree that the police should try to stop that practice in Europe, but there is no reason the British should feel for the Africans who live in London any more than for the Africans who live in Africa. African immigrants are displacing Europeans. If anything, Europeans should have a preference for Africans who stay in Africa. But the message of the Daily Mail and Met Police is that it is racist and illegitimate to draw any distinction between "us" and other people who live in Britain. That is why they express bogus concern and pretend to be shocked by the practices of African immigrants exactly as they would be shocked if it was done by Europeans. And they want us to pretend that we are shocked too. The western media is full of that kind of heavy propaganda. It sounds like propaganda against racial discrimination, but it is really propaganda for population substitution, even though the Met Police and the Daily Mail pose as protectors of British society against third-world dubious traditions. The proper response is to laugh at the journalists' propaganda even if it sounds cynical. It is the media who are cynical, because they do not really believe what they print and they have no qualms about destroying their own country.
Personally, knowing that some immigrants think nothing of mutilating their children makes me want to expel them all the more.

Just wondering......

Submitted by onecent on Fri, 2008-01-04 22:11.

"In this age of political correctness, no doubt, factions in Britain will argue that such interventionist activity is discriminatory and a breach of human rights."

I'm wondering what the inept morally equivocating liberal Nanny State would do with the next wave of immigrant pathology if cannabilism is their quaint ritual.

If body parts were being grilled outside would these misguided multi-culti syncophants get their heads out of the sand? 

@onecent

Submitted by atheling on Sat, 2008-01-05 00:17.

"If body parts were being grilled outside would these misguided multi-culti syncophants get their heads out of the sand?"

They would probably raise a ruckus only if the person grilling the body parts was white!

Disingenuous...again

Submitted by marcfrans on Fri, 2008-01-04 15:57.

@ KA

It's a nice prayer that you got at the end of your rant, but you are not taking it to heart yourself.  So, it becomes meaningless words, words..... I mean, where is this "courage to change the things I can"? 

It is nonsense to imply that a wealthy - and still basically democratic - nation, like Britain, could not enforce its laws domestically, and should throw up its arms behind your 'prayer' of "accept the things I cannot change" .  It is a cop-out, it is moral abdication.  It is your moral relativism 'talking' again.

No one is going to claim that Britain could stamp out FGM (female genital mutilation) in the muslim world, but it should be able to enforce its own laws at home, and it certainly must try.  And no one is going to claim that crime (including FGM) is going to disappear entirely from Britain, or anywhere else in the world.  But that is not an argument to throw up one's arms and declare it - like you do - 'not my business'.   The empty moral heart of the racist paleo-right is on display again, just as much as the emptiness of the moral relativism of the multicul-left.

Rant

Submitted by Kapitein Andre on Fri, 2008-01-04 15:21.

The Daily Mail: In this age of political correctness, no doubt, factions in Britain will argue that such interventionist activity is discriminatory and a breach of human rights.

 

Welcome to the clash between group (multicultural) and individual (liberal) rights and freedoms.

 

The Daily Mail: There will also be those who believe female genital mutilation to be an issue for the African community to resolve, arguing that our overstretched police and health professionals have more pressing matters to address.

 

Not a bad idea.

 

The Daily Mail: Detective Inspector Hamilton was persuaded otherwise when she sat through a graphic video showing a cutter at work. With its haunting screams and bloodied instruments, this real-life horror film changed her life. "These little girls shouldn't have to live in that other world," she says. "They go to school here. Their homes and friends are here. They are our little girls. They are British. What is happening to them is barbaric – and it must be stopped."

 

Therein lies the problem. Why should DI Hamilton have viewed such a video? Does one need to view pornography before being allowed to render judgement on whether such sexual relations should be permitted? Or snuff films?

 

We in industrialized countries are literally bombarded with images of suffering (generally by charities), especially during traditional holiday times. Never can a Westerner enjoy themselves without having to worry about starving children in sub-Saharan Africa, homelessness and poverty in their own community, disease, etc. Unfortunately, while we may be able to temporarily place ourselves in another's shoes so to speak, we cannot live their lives for them. This video of FGM in progress is not an aid to anyone, it merely has convinced the police officer in question that she would not want this to be done to either herself, her daughter or indeed any female in Britain. It does not end there. The leftist academics would have us create a world in which no one had any crosses to bear nor consequences for our actions all because not everyone could stomach these. According to the proponents of multiculturalism, minority political leaders are not beneficial because they would act better for everyone's best interests, merely because their presence would make minorities 'feel better'. Sadly that is all leftism is these days: not letting anyone feel good unless we can all feel good. I realize this rant is now off-topic, but when I here that FGM is occurring somewhere, I don't really care unless it's my kith and kin.

 

Perhaps DI Hamilton should take note of the serenity prayer:

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference."

More Blathering from KA...

Submitted by atheling on Sat, 2008-01-05 00:40.

What hypocrisy. What arrogance.

You have the gall to refer to God and a Christian prayer while proclaiming your indifference to human suffering in the world.

Unbelievable.

Even Kappert has more soul than you.

@ Kapitein Andre

Submitted by traveller on Fri, 2008-01-04 15:46.

I know that whatever you write here is only done to upset other people. Therefore I am not going to spend to much time on an answer: If you don't feel involved about FGM don't talk about it. Those girls don't need you to solve the problem, you couldn't and you wouldn't. Your ego is much to big to comprehend even the pain of those human beings.
So leave them alone, they are not asking anything from you.