Female Genital Mutilation Continues in the U.S. It Must Be Stopped

It was a failure to denounce a crime against humanity. In July, Ani Zonneveld, president of Muslims for Progressive Values, asked Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota to make a statement concerning women and girls victimized by female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C). Instead of educating the audience and pledging to improve legal protections against it, Omar, a Somali-American Muslim woman, pointed out that she had spoken against the practice elsewhere and excoriated Zonneveld for making the request simply because of Omar’s religion—ignoring the fact that Zonneveld is herself a follower of Islam.