Anti-Semitism once again raises its ugly head in Europe, this time in the not-so-subtle form of an attempt to ban circumcision!
Swiss Circumcision Decision an Ominous Portent for Euro Jews
Last week, Germany’s parliament acted expeditiously to squelch the attempt of a Cologne judge to ban circumcision.
A cross-party motion promoted by Chancellor Angela Merkel passed by the
lower house urged the government to present a bill in the fall that
would specifically protect the right of circumcision. This both
reassured the Jewish and Muslim communities as well as prevented Germany
from being seen as, in Merkel’s words, a “laughingstock” for seeking to
render illegal a key Jewish religious ritual only a generation after
the Holocaust.
But Germany’s efforts may not be enough to halt the momentum of those seeking to infringe upon religious liberty. As Haaretz reports,
two Swiss hospitals have just announced they will stop performing
circumcisions. This illustrates that the movement to ban circumcision,
fueled as it is by the rising tide of European anti-Semitism, is still
gaining ground.
Even if Merkel follows up on her pledge to ensure that circumcision
is protected in Germany, the problem is that the Cologne ruling granted a
veneer of respectability to its opponents. Whereas in the past those
railing against Jewish practices were largely marginal, the court
victory legitimized their campaign to drive one of the key principles of
Judaism — the Abrahamic covenant that circumcision symbolizes
—underground. As with other expressions of Jew-hatred in the current
atmosphere in which Israel and its supporters are demonized, it is now
possible to be more open with contempt for Judaism and to advocate
measures that might have been unthinkable not that long ago.
Moreover, the court placed a doubt in the minds of doctors and others
in the medical profession that they would be exposed to penalties for
performing the procedure. After the Cologne ruling, the German Medical
Association advised doctors to stop their participation in circumcision.
It bears remembering that, as COMMENTARY contributor Ruth Wisse once
wrote, anti-Semitism is the most successful ideology of the 20th
century. It helped inform Fascism, Nazism and Communism and today is a
useful tool for Islamists and their European leftist allies. The
campaign against circumcision, like the even more successful European
efforts to ban kosher slaughter, is driven in no small measure by a
desire to drive Jews out of the continent. That it is harming Muslims as
much as Jews is an irony that ought not to prevent joint efforts by the
two communities to combat this noxious proposal.
But taken in the context of a noticeable increase in violence against
Jews in the aftermath of the shootings in Toulouse this past spring,
the circumcision bans are an indication that the future of European
Jewry is by no means assured.
He had to be hospitalized because the doctor apparently had made a mistake which raised the debate whether or not circumcision is against the human rights or the right of freedom of religion.
(Freedom of religion in Germany is guaranteed by article 4 of the Basic Law (constitution). This states that "the freedom of religion, conscience and the freedom of confessing one's religious or philosophical beliefs are inviolable. Uninfringed religious practice is guaranteed.")
I believe children shouldn't be forced to join any religion, just because their parents practise it, but I see it's hard since usually children are raised in their parents' faith.
My opinion on this debate: As long as the circumcision is carefully done, there is usually little risk of side effects, so I don't see anything against it. Sure you can argue that it's mutilation to cut of a boys foreskin, but as long as he's not endangered or hurt by it, I think the health benefits speak for it.
About his right to choose his own religion: I don't see why he can't later decide to leave Judaism or Islam being circumcised.
And as far as I know, the court's decision has been rejected, in Germany anyway.
read: http://news.natio...
He had to be hospitalized because the doctor apparently had made a mistake which raised the debate whether or not circumcision is against the human rights or the right of freedom of religion.
(Freedom of religion in Germany is guaranteed by article 4 of the Basic Law (constitution). This states that "the freedom of religion, conscience and the freedom of confessing one's religious or philosophical beliefs are inviolable. Uninfringed religious practice is guaranteed.")
I believe children shouldn't be forced to join any religion, just because their parents practise it, but I see it's hard since usually children are raised in their parents' faith.
My opinion on this debate: As long as the circumcision is carefully done, there is usually little risk of side effects, so I don't see anything against it. Sure you can argue that it's mutilation to cut of a boys foreskin, but as long as he's not endangered or hurt by it, I think the health benefits speak for it.
About his right to choose his own religion: I don't see why he can't later decide to leave Judaism or Islam being circumcised.
And as far as I know, the court's decision has been rejected, in Germany anyway.
read: http://news.nationalpost.com/...
0bama.
San Francisco had a bill to ban circumstances.... a Jewish religious rite........... and
yet SF would holler loud and clear to protect Islam. Go figure.
just say it is unfair because under the entitlement mentality they don't have all those
luxuries that those who work hard do. If you look at the poor in this country, they
have cars, TVs, I-phones and I-pads, (I don't have either) ample food, alcohol and
smokes if the use them.......... The poverty level in other countries is horrendous with
many lacking food shelter and even water...... and a phone? no way! Or TV? no
there is no electricity in a refugee camp and other living accommodations.............
I just don't get it. I was born into a poor family, but I worked for an education and
everything else I got. That ability to move up the ladder in this country is the American
way, and if that dream is destroyed, then America is just like all the other countries
in Europe and elsewhere.
prosper. I guess people are just jealous; the took a wasteland dessert and
made it a prospering oasis! I don't think they should be subjected to that
same hatred again. WWII should have taught the world something besides
envy and greed. On the other hand, we are seeing that same envy and
greed working for 0bama with his class warfare.
Johnson includes an epilogue to the history:
"One way of summing up 4,000 years of Jewish history is to ask ourselves what would have happened to the human race if Abraham had not been a man of great sagacity, or if he had stayed in Ur and kept his higher notions to himself, and no specific Jewish people had come into being. Certainly the world without the Jews would have been a radically different place. Humanity might eventually have stumbled upon all the Jewish insights. But we cannot be sure. All the great conceptual discoveries of the intellect seem obvious and inescapable once they have been revealed, but it requires a special genius to formulate them for the first time. The Jews had this gift. To them we owe the idea of equality before the law, both divine and human; of the sancti...
Johnson includes an epilogue to the history:
"One way of summing up 4,000 years of Jewish history is to ask ourselves what would have happened to the human race if Abraham had not been a man of great sagacity, or if he had stayed in Ur and kept his higher notions to himself, and no specific Jewish people had come into being. Certainly the world without the Jews would have been a radically different place. Humanity might eventually have stumbled upon all the Jewish insights. But we cannot be sure. All the great conceptual discoveries of the intellect seem obvious and inescapable once they have been revealed, but it requires a special genius to formulate them for the first time. The Jews had this gift. To them we owe the idea of equality before the law, both divine and human; of the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person; of the individual conscience and so of personal redemption; of the collective conscience and so of social responsibility; of peace as an abstract ideal and love as the foundation of justice, and many other items which constitute the basic moral furniture of the human mind. Without the Jews it might have been a much emptier place."
It's an excellent book, available in paperback, and I highly recommend it.
There is also the fact that it may help prevent cervical cancer in women!
" Circumcising men can reduce cervical cancer risk in women, a new study shows."
http://www.webmd.com/cancer/c...
"That it is harming Muslims as much as Jews is an irony that ought not to prevent joint efforts by the two communities to combat this noxious proposal."