Dar Al-Hijrah's board of directors is calling for the dismissal of Virginia imam Shaker Elsayed after he endorsed female genital mutilation to prevent "hypersexuality." (MICHAEL REYNOLDS/EPA)
BY MEGAN CERULLO
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
An imam at a prominent Virginia mosque is under fire after promoting female genital mutilation in order to prevent what he called “hypersexuality” in girls and women, The Washington Post reported.
The Board of Directors at the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church is now calling for Imam Shaker Elsayed’s firing — after he seemingly endorsed the practice that’s banned under both U.S. and Islamic law.
A video of Elsayed’s May lecture on child rearing and family life appeared on YouTube, showing the imam referring to female genital mutilation as “the honorable thing to do if needed.”
“This is something that a Muslim gynecologist can tell you if you need to or not,” he said.
He referred to the process as one that is necessary to prevent “hypersexuality” in girls and women.
“She (the doctor) is expected to cut only the tip of the sexual sensitive part in the girl so that she not hyperseuxally active. This is the purpose,” he said of the procedure.
Dar al-Hijrah mosque, Falls Church, VA
The World Health Organization has labelled FGM a human rights violation.
It should be labelled 'child sex abuse'!
But it remains a common practice among certain communities in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
The procedure has no health benefits for girls and women, according to the WHO, but can cause severe bleeding and problems urinating, cysts, infections, complications in childbirth and even death.
The practice ranges from a partial removal of the clitoris to the removal of the clitoris and the labia, and the infibulation of the vaginal opening.
Elsayed warned that in “societies where circumcision of girls is completely prohibited, hypersexuality takes over the entire society and a woman is not satisfied with one person or two or three.”
So, better that she not be satisfied at all, ever? I suspect some FGMs are done because men either don't know how to satisfy a woman or are incapable of it, so they don't want to bother.
So, better that she not be satisfied at all, ever? I suspect some FGMs are done because men either don't know how to satisfy a woman or are incapable of it, so they don't want to bother.
Elsayed apologized for his comments after Dar al-Hijrah’s Board of Directors said Monday that it rejected his stance.
“I admit that I should have avoided it. I hereby take it back. and I do apologize to all those who are offended by it,” he said, The Washington Post reported.
Community members slammed the imam for his controversial lecture, with many calling for his dismissal.
“I think there’s a very real concern (comments like his) contribute to the idea that Muslims are backward and out of touch, as is their religion,” Suhai Webb, a popular imam at the Center D.C. said, the Washington Post reported.
Dar al-Hijrah is one of the nation’s largest mosques with about 3,000 regular congregants.
Two of the 9/11 hijackers had prayed there at some point.
Falls Church, VA
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