Henri Goldstein, the president of the Jewish Community in Denmark, says the measure represents "the worst threat since World War II" to the country's Jews, who traditionally circumcise baby boys on their eighth day of life, a ritual known as brit milah.

The Danish parliament is set to vote sometime during its next session on the bill filed last month by Simon Emil Ammitzboll-Bille, a former interior minister and leader of the left-leaning Forward party. Read more

In common with other religious leaders in Iceland, Tencer is concerned the bill before Iceland's parliament compromised the Icelandic Jewish and Muslim communities' right to observe their religious practices.

"Jesus Himself was circumcised, as were His apostles," the bishop wrote in a letter to other religious leaders.

"We fully support Muslims and Jews in their fight to freely express their faith."

Tencer says the bill could be tantamount to religious persecution.

"To us [religious leaders] it looks like this can be an opportunity for those who are interested in this matter to misuse the subject of circumcision in an attempt to persecute individuals for their religion."

The bill, introduced by four political parties, uses the same wording as a 2005 Icelandic law banning female genital mutilation, changing the word "girls" to "children".

If passed into law, people who violate the ban could be imprisoned for up to six years.

Bishop of Iceland Agnes M. Sigurðardóttir has also condemned the ban.

"The danger that arises, if this bill becomes law, is that Judaism and Islam will become criminalised religions," she says, and "that individuals who subscribe to these faiths will be banned in this country and unwelcome."

Silja Dogg Gunnarsdóttir from the Progressive Party says she proposed the bill as part of children's health rights.

She says it not about religious beliefs but was instead a health issue.

"Everyone has the right to believe in what they want, but the rights of children come above the right to believe," she says.

Rabbi Yair Melchior says a circumcision ban does not exist in any country but Iceland. He is concerned if the bill is passed into law when politicians vote on it in June, it could set a precedent.

Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, the president of the Conference of European Rabbis, says the bill is perceived as an anti-immigration issue directed against Muslims "and we the Jews are the collateral damage."

It is "basically saying that Jews are not anymore welcome in Iceland," he says.

Ahmad Seddeeq, the imam of the Islamic Cultural Center of Iceland, called it "a contravention to the religious rights of freedom" that criminalises a centuries-old tradition.

Source

• Grapevine
• Christian Daily
• Image: RUV

In November 2010, a Muslim doctor in Germany carried out a circumcision on a four-year old-boy at the request of his parents. A few days later the boy started bleeding and was admitted to Cologne's University hospital who reported the matter to the police. Last month, after a lengthy legal battle, a judge in Cologne outlawed male circumcision as being against the best interests of the child.

Muslim and Jewish groups have been understandably outraged. This week, Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel set herself against the court ruling by telling members of her CDU party that "I do not want Germany to be the only country in the world in which Jews cannot practise their rites." It beggars belief that a German chancellor ought to have to utter such a sentence. Read more

Sources

• Giles Fraser in The Guardian
• Image: HubPages

Dr Giles Fraser is priest-in-charge at St Mary's Newington in south London.