A new Michigan bill is accused of being “anti-Muslim”
In the wake of recent arrests related to alleged female genital mutilation performed by Michigan doctors, there has been national outcry against illegal and unsafe “foreign” practices. Because the two doctors accused of performing the illegal procedures freshman Rep. Michele Hoitenga has introduced a new bill that she believes will send a strong message to people whose religious and cultural practices are in violation of Michigan law. The proposed law would impose penalties far more harsh than those handed out under the federal law.
Bill S-1386 was written after the genital mutilation case broke, and the resulting media coverage linked the assaults to Islam practice. Although the doctors who performed the procedures, Jumana Nagarwala and Fakhruddin Attar are both Muslim, they are specifically linked to a small fundamentalist sect named the Dawoodi Bohra. The Muslim community at large has denounced female genital mutilation, which is viewed by U.S. federal law as a form of sexual assault on a child. Cutting or mutilating a female child’s genitals is done for the sole purpose of preventing her from enjoying intimacy in the future and “controlling her urges.”
Although the bill does not specifically mention Islam or the community, the email that Hoitenga sent out seeking co-sponsors raised the issue of genital mutilation and the Muslim community. “If you have not heard by now, a doctor in Detroit is being charged with operating an underground clinic that actively engaged in genital mutilation on young girls, essentially practicing a fundamentalist version of sharia law. I have a (bill) on my desk this week that would prohibit the practice of foreign laws, including Sharia Law. I believe we must send a message that these practices shall not be tolerated in the state of Michigan.”
While Hoitenga’s bill has garnered much support, there has already been backlash from certain Democratic corners.
State Rep. Abdullah Hammoud, who is Muslim, and Rep. Jeremy Moss, who is Jewish, have both spoken out against the new bill. Both say that the consequences of a law that makes religious ceremonies and observances illegal would be devastating to people of many cultures here in Michigan. Catholic annulments, Kosher delis and Haram food markets, and Jewish bris ( the traditional Jewish circumcision ceremony) would all be outlawed, is the claim of some. However, the bill would not proscribe religious practices that are widely accepted. The bill is aimed at a practice that is denounced by nearly all Muslims similar to most Muslims denouncing jihad.
In addition, Hammoud points out that the new law would do nothing to protect young girls from female circumcision or other forms of mutilation in Michigan. The fact that Hoitenga created this bill with Sharia law in mind, Hammoud says is is a misunderstanding of what Michigan Muslims believe. “This bill is simply a xenophobic, Islamophobic attack on Michigan’s Muslim community, which already abhors the practice of mutilation and does not want to be identified with it.”
Another factor that needs to be taken into account, Hammoud says, is the fact that female circumcision is already illegal. “There is no need to create another law to outlaw something that is already prohibited,” he said. Federal law prohibits altering a minor girl’s genitalia in any way, beyond that which is deemed medically necessary for health. This has been the case since 1996, when it was formally outlawed here in the U.S.
Representative Hoitenga’s bill proposes that Michigan judges would not be allowed to apply foreign laws in Michigan courts, if doing so would violate state or federal constitutional rights. In a statement Hoitenga made in response to the claims that her bill was “anti-Muslim”, Hoitenga said that “This legislation does not target any specific group or religion, it simply clarifies that foreign laws that are inconsistent with American laws will not be recognized in our courts.”