Ismail Berdiyev, a senior Islamic religious leader from Dagestan, started quite the furor when he came out yesterday stating that all women should undergo female circumcision, or the barbaric practice better described as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), in order to reduce “perversion in the world”.

The leader stated in an interview earlier this week:

“All women should be circumcised so there would be no debauchery on earth, so that sexuality is minimised,” Mr Berdiyev, a prominent figure in Dagestan, told a correspondent from Interfax, a Russian news agency.

“The Almighty created woman to bear and raise children,” he added. “[Circumcision] would not affect that. Women would not stop giving birth. But there would be less promiscuity.”

He went on to clarify that although Islam does not prescribe the practice, “it is necessary to reduce female sexuality. If it was done to all women, it would be very good.”

Where should I begin? First, let me state that this is clearly an example of taqiyya , this is a term that literally means that to lie in the furtherance of the cause of Islam is permissible. FGM has been a horrifying reality in majority Muslim countries for thousands of years and, according to the Middle East forum, is “far more tied to religion than many Western academics will admit”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqf1tonx-Uo