It is “basically saying that Jews are not anymore welcome in Iceland,” he said.

At least 400 doctors — about a quarter of the practicing doctors in Iceland — have signed a petition in support of the bill and, according to news reports, more than 1,000 nurses and midwives have also endorsed it.

“Every medical intervention must be weighed against its complications,” said Dr. Eyjolfur Thorkelsson, who wrote the petition. “In our opinion it’s a fundamental question about what the doctor-patient relationship really means. As a doctor you must treat everybody equally, regardless of class, religion, gender, gender preference or ethnic descent.”

Part of that, he added, is the first rule of medicine: Do no harm.

Circumcision is a surgical procedure, he said, and surgical procedures are never without risk.

“You have to weigh the costs,” he said.

Kjartan Njalsson, an editor at the Icelandic news organization Frettabladid who wrote an editorial opposing the bill, said that while he didn’t agree with circumcision, the idea of throwing people in prison was “barbaric” and “completely absurd.”

“I have no confidence that this bill will be passed the way it looks right now,” he said.

If a version of the bill does pass, Iceland will become the first European country to ban male circumcision.

And activists in Denmark are hoping to follow suit.

As of Wednesday, the organization Intact Denmark had gathered nearly half of the required 50,000 signatures to create a bill that would ban medically unnecessary male circumcision before the age of 18.

In Iceland, there are about 250 Jewish citizens and about 2,000 Muslims, religious leaders said.

By contrast, there are hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Denmark, according to the Danish government, and more than 20 recognized Islamic communities.