The conference urged all countries to eliminate all forms of discrimination against girls.

Banjul, Gambia, November 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Ministers, politicians and scholars from almost 50 Muslim states have gathered for two days in the Moroccan capital for the first Islamic childhood conference, calling for protecting children from abuse, exploitation and harmful traditions, basically the abhorrent female circumcision.

The first Islamic Conference of Ministers in Charge of Childhood put special emphasis in its final statement called the "Rabat Declaration" on female genital mutilation (FGM) and other harmful practices discriminating girls, underlining it is against Islam, the All Africa.com reported on Tuesday, November 22.

Organised by the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ISESCO), the declaration spared harsh criticism for FGM.

It called upon all Muslim states to "take the necessary measures to eliminate all forms of discrimination against girls and all harmful traditional or customary practices, such as child marriage and female genital mutilation."

Muslim scholars for decades have emphasised that there is no Islamic basis for the very harmful practice, which causes many deaths among young girls each year.

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

Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Canada, said in another fatwa, that there is nothing in the Islamic sources, either the Qur’an or the Sunnah, to suggest that it is a prescribed ritual of initiation for women in Islam.

Legislation

Governments were further asked to "enact and implement proper legislations and formulate, where appropriate, national plans, programmes and strategies protecting girls."

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) had said.

Female circumcision is practiced in 28 African countries as well as in Asia and the Middle East, according to the UN organization, but the procedure is also increasingly found in Europe, Australia, Canada and the USA, primarily among immigrants from these countries.

So far, only 14 of the overall 53 African countries have adopted laws banning the practice, according to Amnesty International.

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.

Honor Killing

The honor killings was the other issue that was tackled in depth by the participants.  

The conference urged Muslim states to take "appropriate legislative and administrative measures and devise suitable programs" to fight crimes against women and girls committed in the name of honor.

Further issues high on the agenda were the fight against poverty, preventable diseases and armed conflicts - issues that to a great degree victimise children in too many Muslim countries.

"Necessary resources" needed to be allocated to the health system in the OIC countries, to enlarge access to social services, to secure good nutrition and to provide medical care to children, the Declaration said.

Delegates had been reminded that an estimated 4.3 million children under five die each year from preventable disease and malnutrition in Islamic countries, while about 6 million children under five suffer from malnutrition.