“No religious text requires or even supports cutting female genitals. In fact, Islamic Shari'a protects children and protects their rights.”
Despite the fact that the federal government is defending Islamic sharia the truth of the matter is that the sharia does condone the practice. For example:
“Circumcision is obligatory. For men it consists of removing the prepuce from the penis, and for women, removing the prepuce (Ar. Bazr) of the clitoris."
Cf. Sacred Islamic Reliance: p. 59, Umdat al-Salik (“Reliance of the Traveler”), a manual of Islamic jurisprudence certified as "reliable" by Al-Azhar University, the leading Islamic seminary in the world.
Moreover, the Islamic practice is sanctioned in the U.S. by Dr. Hatem al-Haj, a fellow at the American Academy of Pediatrics and a leading Muslim jurist.