GERMANY: Jewish And Muslim Groups Urge Bill To Overturn Circumcision Ban

After a German court ruled that the circumcision of minor boys constituted "grievous bodily harm," a coalition of Jewish and Muslim groups are calling on the national legislature to pass a bill that allows the practice.

"We call on the German Bundestag (lower house) and the government to act as quickly as possible to put an end to this legal insecurity and establish legal safeguards allowing the circumcision of boys," said Gurcan Mert of the Turkish Islamic Union, speaking on behalf of the other groups. In a decision that also sparked outrage among Jewish groups and which could set a legal precedent, the regional court in this western city ruled against a doctor in Cologne who had circumcised a four-year-old Muslim boy on his parents' wishes. The judges found that the "fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity outweighed the fundamental rights of the parents". "The religious freedom of the parents and their right to educate their child would not be unacceptably compromised if they were obliged to wait until the child could himself decide to be circumcised," the court added.

Several German hospitals have already suspended circumcisions until its legality is made more clear.