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Mayo Clinic Fires Doctor Advocating Female Genital Mutilation Sun, May 20, 2012 by Meira Svirsky The Mayo Clinic has fired one of their doctors for advocating female genital mutilation. Dr. Hatem Elhagaly, left, a Muslim pediatrician, was dismissed from the top-notch clinic for promoting a practice that is illegal in America but, in his words, "honors Islam." The barbaric practice has no health benefits to women. On the contrary, in addition to the emotional and psychological trauma of the procedure, mutilation of female genitals can cause severe bleeding, urinary problems, painful mentruation, cysts, complication in childbirth, sterility and death. In...

Indonesian police in the Sharia-ruled province, Aceh, have detained 25 teenagers, but it is not clear why. The youths call themselves “punks” and human rights activists call their detention an attempt to curb freedom of expression in the traditionally conservative province. After a charity music event for a local orphanage at Banda Aceh’s Budaya Park on Saturday, police in the province arrested dozens of teenagers for apparently no other reason than their appearance. Those detained had come to Aceh from as far away as Jakarta and West Java, sporting hairstyles and clothing rarely seen in the conservative province. Witnesses said...