WASHINGTON, February 7, (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Female circumcision is not obligatory in Islam, a leading scholar said Saturday, February 7, as the international day against the practice was marked by calls of zero tolerance.

More than 130 million women around the world have undergone the procedure as female circumcision is still performed every year on 2 million girls, United Nation's Children's Fund (UNICEF ) said on the first anniversary of the International Day of Zero Tolerance of Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting (female circumcision).

The UNICEF said in a press release that the practice was a deeply-rooted tradition that in many societies is believed to be a religious obligation, UNICEF said.

The female circumcision  has been remarkably practiced in African countries and Arab Islamic countries, especially in Egypt and Sudan.

However, Islamic scholar Sheikh Youssef Al-Qaradwi asserted that the practice is by no means obligatory in Islam.

“Muslim countries differ over the issue of female circumcision; some countries sanction it whereas others do not. Anyhow, it is not obligatory,” Qaradawi said in an edict published by IslamOnline.net.

He said that some scholars even hold that whoever finds that some Muslims have stopped practicing male circumcision should force them to revert to the procedure.

Kutty said that while one finds a number of traditions from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, which clearly indicates that he ordered pagan males who converted to undergo circumcision, it is not stated anywhere that the Prophet (PBUH) had ordered any woman who entered Islam to undergo this practice.

He noted that it is common knowledge in Islam that if the Prophet (PBUH), had wanted female circumcision to be an integral aspect of religious practice in Islam, he would have said so clearly.

“Since he did not do so, we can safely assume it is not a prescribed ritual of Islam,” the Muslim scholar said.

Female circumcision - or Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as UNICEF calls it - is practiced in 28 African countries as well as in Asia (Indonesia) and the Middle-East (Yemen), according to the U.N. organization.

But the procedure is also increasingly found in Europe, Australia, Canada and the USA, primarily among immigrants from these countries, it added.

The organization said comprehensive culturally sensitive approaches are needed to address, and begin to change, community attitudes toward female genital mutilation and cutting.

UNICEF further said that at current rates, by 2010, sixteen million more girls will be cut.

So far, only 14 of the overall 53 African countries have adopted laws banning the practice, Amnesty International said in a separate release.

Despite the fact that enforcement of the law is made difficult by social pressure to undergo the ritual, Amnesty International believed that legislation is an important tool in creating a protective environment for girls and women affected by this practice.

But particular success on this front has been made in Senegal, where nearly 1300 villages representing more than 600,000 people have ended the practice of FGM/C altogether.

In Sudan, local religious leaders have begun to actively work to end the procedure as well. By developing community-based and culturally attuned awareness raising campaigns, this practice - seen as a violation of a woman's rights - can be ended altogether.

During its last meeting in February 2003, the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC) adopted a "Declaration of Zero Tolerance to FGM on the African Continent".

Female Genital Mutilation comprises all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs whether for cultural, religious or other non-therapeutic reasons, Amnesty International said.

The immediate and long-term health consequences of female genital mutilation vary according to the type and severity of the procedure performed.

Immediate complications include severe pain, shock, hemorrhage, urine retention, ulceration of the genital region and injury to adjacent tissue. Long-term complications include and recurring urinary tract infections, the group said.