Muslim Genital Mutilation Case Dropped: Child Sexual Torture is "No Business" of the Feder
In that bastion of legal genius called Detroit, a federal judge has decided it is in the best interest of American society that the U.S. government keep it's nose completely out of the jaw-dropping ugliness of female genital torture. Yes, indeed. So he dismissed most of the charges against a Muslim immigrant physician who routinely, secretly and for no medical reason, cut away female genital tissue of at least nine underage girls, according to police reports.
In an announcement made this week, Judge Bernard Friedman in Michigan ruled that the federal female genital mutilation law is "unconstitutional" and that Congress did not have the authority to criminalize the custom. So he dismissed 6 of 8 charges in what was the first federal case involving the horrific, religious-fanatic based custom in the U.S.
"Congress overstepped its bounds by legislating to prohibit female genital mutilation,"
Judge Friedman called FGM a "local criminal activity" for the states to regulate, not Congress.
Doctor Jumana Nagarwala is the primary defendant in the case. The charges of Conspiring to Commit and Committing Female Genital Mutilation, as well as Aiding and Abetting others to doing so, have been dropped. Nagarwala still faces charges of conspiring to travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, and conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding.
Also charged are Doctor Fakhruddin Attar, his wife, Farida Attar, and 5 other Muslim residents of Michigan and Minnesota.
Female Genital Mutilation is legally and medically referred to as to "procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for cultural or other nonmedical reasons," (The United Nations Population Fund)
FGM is banned in 44 countries, including the United States. The World Health Organization considers the procedure a human rights violation.
The procedure Nagarwala is accused of performing happened over a decade that ended in April, 2017. Prosecutors say that Attar, an internal medicine physician, allowed Nagarwala, an emergency room physician, to perform the banned procedures at his medical clinic in Livonia Michigan, after it closed for the day. Nagarwala was reportedly assisted by Attar's wife, Farida, and additional adults, who helped hold the children down as they were sexually tortured,
Nagarwala and the Attars are accused of instructing others not to speak about the procedures. The 9 underage girls are from Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois and are between the ages of 8 and 13, according to police reports.