There is a mistake in the religioustolerance.org page, the practise of FGM is not prevalent in the North Africa, it is prevalent in Egypt, and the Nile valley mostly, as any slight researches show, it is not done in the rest of North Africa, in the Maghreb where it is considered an Egyptian 3ada that is not even sunnah and something unislamic (although sadly certain hateful salafiste Egyptian preachers since their revolution have tried to promote their own jahiliya as sunnah in the Maghreb, but this hateful effort is being rejected).
In fact, although those who have the interest in only religious bigotries will avoid the information to use this as a cane to support a false face on bigotries, there is no close association with the Islam with this practice, it is something practised in a geographic area that is the Sahel and the Nile Valley and the North East Africa.A detailed discussion is from this UN report. Maybe we can say the zone of the cattle herding peoples of ancient times, but as it is practices by the Christians, by the Muslims and the pagans. It is most clearly an ancient practise that has no relationship in origin with the religions of Abraham.
It is no matter, like in all other discussions, this false information like other false and partial informations will be repeated in false sympthy for Muslim women, but it is only a mask being exploited.
Eithiopia in our consdirations is not North Africa in the geographies that I took in University, it is East Africa, in the Sahel. But it you wish to call it North Africa, it does not change that the greatest extent of the North Africa, the Maghreb has no such practises. There is no “false informations” I am the only one who has bother to give you any maps and data, instead of people making empty assertions. Before saying such things you should look at the actual informations and the maps.
Actually I see that the English wikipedia, which I think must reflect the common anglophone definitions of the geographic zones shows indeed the definition which I have from my university studies is similar: North Africa - Wikipedia and so there is no false information or error.
So your comment is false. If you wish to make a small criticism that is pedantic, you can criticise for me not saying the Sudan in that same sentence, although I do not think of the Sudan as part of the North Africa region, but of the Sahel.
By the way, I’m not disagreeing that FGM isn’t an Islamic practice. I’m just saying that it is practiced in a number of places, both by Muslims and non-Muslims.
As for my assertion just above, I think I should’ve said “parts of Ethiopia and Eritrea.” But that’s just a quibble, as you said.
I do not understand this. What do scotsmen have anything to do with this?
if this is some connection with the English phrase no true scotmens, you are entirely wrong. The common geographic definition of the North Africa does not include the Eithiopia, I have never seen in my memory such a definition, although perhaps american medias make such a confusion since they have no geographical training and do not care for Africa. how this can be no true scotmens makes no sense to me. you were wrong about the geography, instead of making assertions about logical errors if I understand this, you should apologise for the error that is entirely yours since my comment that you replied to made the precise location reference *“it is something practised in a geographic area that is the Sahel and the Nile Valley and the North East Africa.” *
It is a reference to the No True Scotsman fallacy.
However, rather than a "No True Scotsman, I suspect that we simply had people from different linguistic and educational traditions identifying adjacent locations with different words.
In fact, both of you agree that the practice of FGM occurs in roughly the same part of the world (whatever name one gives it), and both of you agree that it is a cultural practice that predates and is not supported by any of the major world religions. You also agree that it is practiced (without religious support) by both Muslims and Christians (in contrast to Enuma Elish who kicked off this tangent with his odd claim that FGM was not practiced by Christians).
So, this matter appears to be settled and we should be able to set it aside and not continue this hijack/off-topic discussion.
Try reading the survey report instead of headlines made up by reporters. I have, and much of it is disquieting. The democracy preference? The other choice is a “Strong leader”. That says nothing. Religious freedom? The survey is unclear on who the respondents are(i.e the subset who want Sharia law or all Muslims - but in any case, very large proportions, 70-90%, want Sharia, so its not like that biases the responses too much), but substantial proportions of the respondents approve of the death penalty for leaving Islam. 62% in Malaysia. 76% in Pakistan. 18% in Indonesia. 86% in Egypt. 44% in Bangladesh.
In 12 out of 21 countries, more than 10% of Muslims regard suicide bombing of civilians as a legitimate form of protest in the defence of Islam. This percentage is 18% in Malaysia, 13% in Pakistan(although many more of them seem ready to actually carry out the bombings), 26% in Bangladesh, 29% in Egypt, 15% in Turkey.
Here’s another fun fact from the same article you linked: “according to surveys conducted after the Arab Spring that also found many Muslims want their religious code to be the law of the land.”
“Democracy needs to be continually questioned in terms of its definition so that it is not just seen as a secular endeavor,”
Here (PDF) is the survey. Pages 62 and 63 show the percentage of Muslims in various countries who think people of other religions are free to practice their faiths, and the percentage of those who think it is a good thing. Page 46 lists the percentage of Muslim respondents “who favor making Islamic law the official law in their country”, and page 55 shows the percentage of those who favor “taking the life of those who abandon Islam”.
In Pakistan, for example, 75% of Muslims think that people of other faiths are free to practice (um, what?), and 96% (or 72% cumulative) of those say this is a good thing. Also in Pakistan, 84% of Muslims “favor making Islamic law the official law in their country”, and 76% of those, or 64% of Muslims, favor “taking the life of those who abandon Islam”.
Then can you explain how a majority of Muslims in some countries can somehow support religious freedom, while a majority of Muslims in those same countries support killing someone for converting away from Islam?