From: darice@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au (Fred Rice)
Subject: Re: **** Australian citizens kidnapped by Malaysian Prince ****
Keywords: Australian, citizens, Malaysian
Organization: Monash University, Melb., Australia.
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 07:47:26 GMT

In <2774@ariel.its.unimelb.EDU.AU> stong@ariel.its.unimelb.EDU.AU (Simon Tong) writes:


>Two Australian citizens, both aged under 10, have been kidnapped
>by their father, who happens to be a Malaysian Prince.  The natural
>parents are divorced and the mother has sole custody.  The Australian 
>Federal Police is still looking for them. 

>My question is how come the Australian Government is not doing anything
>at a national level ???  Surely a protest or two is in order ?
>Shouldn't the Government be doing more for two children who are taken
>away from the mother against their will ???

>It is incredible that a Malaysian Prince can just came to Australia,
>kidnapped the children and vanished.  I know he must have unusual
>resources, being a member of the Royal Family, but so has the AFP.

I do not want to seem to be supporting the Prince's actions, but I can
certainly understand his motives.  His wife was teaching them solely
about Christianity, and raising them up as Christians.  I am sure the
Prince would be very concerned if he had strong religious feelings that
Islam is the true religion.

>More questions to any Malaysian out there :-

I am not Malaysian, but I am a Muslim and half-Indonesian, so perhaps I
partially qualify for some of these questions :)

>c) One news report stated that the daughter might be circumcised
>   if she was taken back to Malaysia.
>   Is female circumcision common in Malaysia ?

>d) What is the Islamic law's attitude on female circumcision ?

Islam *does not* require female circumcision.  It is true that it is
practised in some parts of the Islamic world, but in those parts of the
world that is because of culture.  Islam does not encourage
clitodirectomy.  In fact, Islam condemns mutilation, and I think
clitodirectomy is most definitely mutilation.  However, sometimes people
try to interpret religions as supporting their local customs, whether
the teachings of that religion actually does or not.   

Female circumcision, to my knowledge, is a cultural practice among some
people in Sudan, Yemen and Egypt.  However, in most of the Islamic world
it is not practiced.  For example, in Saudi Arabia, the geographical
birthplace of Islam, female circumcision is *not* practiced.  

Now, what _some_ people call "female circumcision" is *not* a
clitodirectomy (which is what I was talking about above).  For example,
my mother (from Indonesia) says all that ever occurs to Indonesian girls
is some ceremony where some water is sprinkled on her.  No cuts
are made.  Yet if you talk to an Indonesian, he/she *might* call this 
"female circumcision", perhaps thinking of it in a sense as the female 
equivalent of male circumcision, even though the female's body is not 
even touched.

Islam does not require female circumcision at all, but *does* condemn
bodily mutilation.  However, clitodirectomy exists in some parts of the 
world as the remnants of a pre-Islamic practice.  Also, some people do 
perform some ceremony for girls which they consider the equivalent of 
male circumcision, yet in which nothing physical is actually performed 
on the female child.  I do not know whether this is the situation in 
Malaysia, but don't you think it's wise to find out before jumping to 
conclusions?
 
 Fred Rice
 darice@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au   

***********************************************************
	One can either take the time
	to learn about the Islamic faith,
	or one can defer to the wisdom of
	broadcast television and hollywood
	and fail to understand it, completely.

				     Gerard Vignes
	[quoted with permission]
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Newsgroups: soc.culture.australian,soc.culture.asean