Smadar Gross became the first woman to head a religious council in Israel when she was elected as chair of the Kfar Sava council on Thursday.
Young girls born in Europe to immigrant families from Africa are being subjected to ritual genital mutilation, and authorities are doing little to discourage it… Somalia-born supermodel and best-selling author Waris Dirie, who has campaigned to end the disfiguring practice… said she estimates one in every three African families living in Europe is secretly carrying out the ritual on their daughters.
The procedure… is especially prevalent in Germany and the Netherlands, as well as in Austria… Islamic religious leaders are telling Europe’s Muslim Africans that the prophets recommend the ancient ritual, which involves the removal of the clitoris, often with a dull blade and no anesthesia, Dirie said.
Of course, Europeans delight in telling us that Israel is an anti-democratic theocracy, where anti-secularism is present at all cultural levels. The difference between Israel and Europe today is that while in Israel there’s no seperation of church and state but most of the country is secular, in Europe they’re closing their eyes and desperately trying to pretent that their written laws will protect them from surging theocratic horrors. This is another example where Europe’s incessant fetishization of process – where a legalistic regime substitutes for the beliefs and assurances that would normally lead up to it – is blinding them to reality (see also: Iraq, Iran, Sudan, UN, etc).
Related Mere Rhetoric Posts:
