As the main writer here on SM (although I was not the one who wrote this post) I would like to respond to a few things you’ve said.

When the article was originally posted, the statistics it reported on female genital mutilation were blatantly wrong. It was a careless mistake, and we attempted to correct it once the error was brought to our intention. As you can see in the post, we crossed out the incorrect information and replaced it with, “90% of women IN EGYPT.” You say you don’t know where we get our statistics from; it should be fairly obvious that for this article, the statistics came from the video that we both highlighted and posted. The video was pretty much the centerpiece of the whole thing, so you actually sound a bit silly saying that you can’t imagine where we got our information from…but anyway… I did a little extra fact checking today, and came up with several new articles which also seem to support the 90% statistic, like this one: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/evelyn-leopold/female-circumcism—-90-p_b_822283.html
This article points out that although the practice of FGM is decreasing (as you said) it is still practiced at an alarmingly high rate in many parts of the world. According to this article, it dropped from 97% to 91%. Are these statistics wrong? If so, can you provide some new sources?
Our article then goes on to say, “This circumcision is basically genital mutilation and is not condoned by all Muslim scholars.” You seem to have misunderstood this completely. Perhaps you don’t understand what “condoned” means? We were pretty much saying that there are muslim scholars who don’t condone–or accept, allow, or sanction–genital mutilation. From your response, you seem to think that “condone” means something like, “condemn.” Or perhaps you were so eager too point out our “ignorance,” that you read that part too quickly.
The point is, we say right in the article that FGM isn’t necessarily a practice sanctioned or approved of by muslim scholars. We do say, “practitioners (of FGM) believe this makes a woman more pure than those in the West, who “go out and lay with any man she wants.” Here, we were referring not to scholars, but simply to anyone who actually practices FGM. And the information presented in this sentence seems perfectly reasonable, given that if you practice FGM, you are likely doing it for what you believe is a good reason. In “Infidel,” Ayaan Hirsi Ali talks about the reasoning behind FGM, and the way it was presented to her as a little girl does seem to match what we’ve written above.

Now that you hopefully have a better understanding of the article you are welcome to again point out any areas where we are wrong… We write these article to encourage discussion, of course, and I have no doubt that you’re knowledgeable in this area. But please respond to things we’ve actually said, and not to things you imagine we might say. We’d appreciate it.

Perhaps you can be a little less insulting in your reply?

Peace
Zai

Look at Muslim web sites (American Muslim, the largest is CAIR) especially the forums where Muslims ask questions of the Mullah for a real eye opener.

Many times they say how the Koran talks about be kind to all men etc. The Koran is talking about all men who are Muslim !! Everyone else is an infidel, not worth the dirt on your shoes !! Look up Dimmini on Google.

Finally, you don’t see crazy, fanatical Christians going around blowing themselves up, chopping peoples heads off and declaring war on the whole of western civilization !!

The best thing I read is if you know someone who is a Muslim you should feel sorry for them. They are living in the past. Like the middle ages. Like the early Christian church before the reformation.

Well, talk is cheap. blah, blah, blah. That’s my two cents anyway.
I could go on and on telling you things that stuck in my mind but I won’t. Most of my reading was done about two years ago.

In the future, please read the post more carefully. You’ve taken much of this post out of context (see above, I’ve never read the Koran) and responded rudely. I hope you exercise more ‘blog etiquette’ in the future.

Cheers!

This is a fact that everybody knows yet its not even mentioned in the Quran. Then how can you read this in the Quran? I think your memory is a little flawed don’t you think?

Please re-read my post. I’ve never read the Koran nor do I claim to have.

#2 is a broooaaaddd statement. I don’t know how anyone can pinpoint it to be wrong. A few commenter alluded to the fact the Koran is a book of guidance and is open to interpretation. This naturally leads to different interpretations among its readers (as with Christianity)… that’s all I’m trying to say. Is anyone reading this a Muslim terrorist? Well then…

#3 I should not have compared Islam to Christianity, to khany’s point. There are differences in every religion. I tried to touch upon a few I had not heard before.

4. This is straight from the episode. Why would I not believe an outfit like National Geographic? I trust they’ve done their research.

5. Again, this came right from the episode. The ’97%’ has come under fire as well, but why would I make it up? I knew nothing of bullet point #5 until I watched Nat Geo’s show.

Your original posts showed up as spam, which happens occasionally. I would have corrected the problem earlier, but during the week, I’m not able to moderate the posts until 4 or 5 pm (after work). Once I got home today, I went through and approved every new post I saw here.

In the future, please have a little patience.