MY LECTURE AT THE 2024 ANGLEFORT REGGAE FESTIVAL

"I have a dream": the abolition of genital mutilation.1

Sexual mutilation does not exist in the West Indies and among black Americans; slave owners banned excision and circumcision because they caused too many deaths, through infection and haemorrhage. Jazz and reggae are not music of circumcised people and neither Bob Marley nor Aimé Césaire claimed Ethiopian genital mutilation. This abolition of the African sexual mutilation was the unique but formidable benefit of slavery!

However, excision is only the tip of the iceberg of sexual mutilation and we shall see that circumcision is millions of times more deadly. In any case, excision and circumcision are intimately linked; there is no excision without circumcision. Not only is it sexist to attack only one of the two mutilations, but it is also ineffective; the best way to put an end to excision is to abolish circumcision. We will look at the subject of circumcision from the angles of morality, law and its consequences.

Firstly, circumcision is morally unacceptable.

The human body is sacred and circumcision is condemned by the three great religions (which may surprise you, but you'll see). Jesus condemned it by receiving baptism with water rather than blood, and Paul, Peter, Thomas Aquinas and the Councils of Jerusalem and Florence echoed this condemnation. This little book, "The birth of Judaism, betweenexegesis and Egyptology", shows that, on the one hand, whereas the rabbis make the shameful circumcision criminality a value, an element of sanctity and moral superiority, Abraham, Moses and the Hebrews fiercely opposed it (it's a greatnovelty, nobody knows it yet, you absolutely must read this book, on sale on Amazon for 8 Euros https://www.amazon.com/dp/107025262X), and on the other hand that the Koran is also opposed to it. You can find my article "23 verses of the Koran against genital mutilation" on the Internet and in the appendix to the book. 16 verses oppose it indirectly and 7 radically; the most significant is the following:

30: 30: ... -no alteration in God's creation; this is religion in its rectitude

At a time when excision is still widely practised in the world and in Europe, this article must end it if it is widely published. Concerning millions of Muslims, it is the most formidable weapon against excision and circumcision. Mrs. Merian intends to use it in her bus against excision. It is often said that excision is not in the Koran, it is true but it is sexist because neither is circumcision, and the Koran is not sexist.

At a time when excision is still widely practised in the world and in Europe, this article must end it if it is widely published. Concerning millions of Muslims, it is the most formidable weapon against excision and circumcision. Mrs Merian intends to use it in her bus against excision.

Circumcision is also condemned by medical ethics: article 41 of the code of ethics states: "No mutilating operation may be performed without very serious medical grounds".

Secondly, from a legal point of view,

On the one hand, the right of the human being to his or her own body is guaranteed by law.

Article 16-1 of the French Civil Code states: "The human body is inviolable" and article 16-3 states: "The integrity of the human body may not be infringed except in the case of medical necessity for the person...". Parents have no rights over their children's bodies.

Under criminal law, genital mutilation is an act of torture and barbarism. Performed on an entire age group, it is a crime against humanity. However, as it is carried out in love and with no intention of causing harm, as the excised women are well aware and do not press charges, it is not punishable. A major current of contemporary legal thought has focused on the child's right to physical integrity. It describes genital mutilation as discrimination. It discriminates against the child, the community and the rest of humanity. Article 3, 2, b of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (7 December 2000) prohibits, and I quote, "eugenic practices, in particular those aiming at the selection of persons". Opening the founding meeting of "Excision, parlons-en" on 14 June 2013 at the Sorbonne, Ms Christine Lazerges, then President of the National Consultative Commission for Human Rights (CNCDH), declared that female and male genital mutilation isdiscriminatory. In 2021, Sandrine Rousseau wrote in the first version of her presidential programme, under the heading "FIGHT AGAINST ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION": "Children continue to be victims of violence. In particular concerning female genital mutilation, the circumcision of young boys for religious reasons, etc".

On 1 October 2013, the Parliamentary Assembly of the European Community passed a resolution condemning circumcision in the same way as excision.

When criminal law condemns sexual mutilation as discrimination, it will be possible to prosecute excisers without the excised women lodging a complaint.

Consequently, if sexual mutilation is the law of a social group, it is a false law, a crazy law, we shall see why.

Thirdly, the worst consequences of genital mutilation are psycho-sociological.

Sexual mutilation is a mental illness all the more serious as it is collective. It is a surgically manufactured racism, with a pretence of moral superiority. It generates a counter-racism: the anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim racism. Freud attributed anti-Jewish racism to circumcision, and Spinoza wrote as early as the 17th century :

... the Jews having lived apart from all nations in such a way as to attract universal hatred, and this not only by observing external rites opposed to those of other nations but by the sign of circumcision.

Violence against children is a transgenerational phenomenon, a vicious cycle that must be broken. Sexual mutilation is its worst form. We shall see that circumcision generates a particularly high level of violence. Let's look at the forms this violence takes:

Moses, who banned circumcision his whole life long, was the first person in history to observe the warmongering of the circumcised; he wrote in Deuteronomy:

The duration of our journey... had been thirty-eight years. By that time the entire warrior generation had disappeared... 2:14

In 2016, the Global Peace Index ranked 163 countries according to the absence of war, with regard to the estimated prevalence of circumcision per country. The thirty most peaceful countries had an average circumcision rate of 10%, against 68% for the thirty least peaceful. Wars are therefore much more frequent in circumcising countries.

Genocide is the most characteristic and the worst illustration of the mental illness we are speaking of. Indeed, there are no genocides between intact peoples; all are committed in the presence of circumcision on one side or the other, and sometimes on both sides (see my article "Genocide and circumcision" on the Internet). The latest is perpetrated in Gaza by circumcised Israelis. This shows that circumcision creates an abyss of mutual paranoia between the circumcised and the uncircumcised. It is all the deeper because it is based on a blind, infantile belief in the equivalence between wisdom and parental or religious authority. Confident and loving, children are quick to forgive their parents (Stockholm syndrome). However, the perpetrators and victims of circumcision are just as guilty as those who tolerate it.

Psychiatry teaches that 5% of cases of trauma are likely severe; they may fall into radical fanaticism. Since the Munich bombing in 1972, almost all terrorist attacks have been committed by circumcised Islamists. The fanaticism of the Israeli far right is the result of the same trauma, and the same goes for the attacks of American Christians.

Finally, violence against women is much higher in circumcising countries: feminicide, honour killings, stoning, excision, rape, dry sex, forced obesity, harems, polygamy, forced marriage, veiling, and segregation.

Circumcision is thus a dangerous collective madness, a factor in fanatism.

Incidentally, my article "Medicine and circumcision" (on the Internet) demonstrates the medical and psychological damage caused by circumcision.

In conclusion, shame must change sides. It can only do so when the law condemns genital mutilation as discrimination.

1This article was published by Agoravox on August 27 2024 (https://www.agoravox.fr/tribune-libre/article/expose-contre-les-mutilations-256486).