When you mutilate something, you cut it up with the intention to alter it so radically as to make it imperfect.
You cut off or maim in order to permanently destroy that which you are attacking (a limb, for instance).
This is synonymous with crippling, disabling, incapacitating, making lame, or maiming.
None of this happens when you circumcise (unless it goes horribly wrong: still not a circumcision problem).
It does happen when FGM is performed (hence: the "M").
|