Religious groups outraged after German court rules circumcision amounts to 'bodily harm'





'Illegal bodily harm': One survey 60 percent of Germans equated circumcision with genital mutilation

A decision to outlaw circumcision on young boys on the grounds that it causes 'illegal bodily harm' has sparked fury among Jewish and Islamic groups in Germany.

The court decision to make child circumcision a crime, made in the city of Cologne, has incurred the wrath of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, a body politicians and the judiciary try to placate as often as possible given the history of the Holocaust.

Although a local ruling, it may set a legal precedent that courts in the other 15 states of Germany would be obliged to follow.



Therefore the fight to reverse it could, ultimately, lead all the way to the Federal Constitutional Court, Germany's highest.

The irony of Jews and Muslims being brought together over a religious issue has not been lost on observers. But while both religions decry it, mainstream German citizens are in accord with the court ruling and believe it should be halted.

One survey last year showed 60 percent of Germans equating circumcision with genital mutilation, a comparison, however, that the Cologne court refused to draw.

Dieter Graumann, president of the Central Council, said the verdict was 'an unprecedented and dramatic intervention in religious communities' right to self-determination. The book of Genesis instructs believers that men should be circumcised.

Controversy: The ruling has brought down the wrath of the Central Council of Jews in Germany (file picture)

'Circumcision of newborn boys is a fixed part of the Jewish religion and has been practiced worldwide for centuries. This religious right is respected in every part of the world.' Islamist organisations also blasted the ruling and promised legal challenges.

Ali Demir, the Chairman of the Islamic Religious Community in Germany, representing some 5.5 million Muslims in Germany, stormed: 'This is a harmless procedure with thousands of years of tradition behind it and high symbolic value.

'The decision of the Cologne State Court that the religious circumcision of boys is illegal and punishable by law is a wholly inappropriate interference with freedom of religion. I feel the ruling is hostile to integration and discriminatory for those affected.'

An estimated 20,000 Islamic children are circumcised on religious grounds every year in Germany, compared to several hundred Jewish children.

Although a local ruling made in the city of Cologne (pictured), it could set a legal precedent that courts in the other 15 states of Germany would be obliged to follow

The regional court in Cologne ruled on Tuesday that child circumcision constituted 'illegal bodily harm,' even with parental consent. In the verdict, the court said that the 'fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity outweighed the fundamental rights of the parents.'



The case came about after a four-year-old Muslim boy's circumcision led to complications, and he checked back into hospital days later with severe bleeding.

Prosecutors then charged the physician - identified under German media practices only as Dr K. - who carried out the operation at the parents' request with grievous bodily harm.

The court acquitted the doctor, however, saying that he did not know the procedure was illegal so it would have been a miscarriage of justice to sentence him.

'A child's body is irreparably and permanently changed by a circumcision,' the court said. 'This change contravenes the interests of the child to decide later about his own religious affiliation.' .

'It could lead to a change of consciousness among the affected religion when it comes to respecting the basic rights of children'

The World Health Organization estimates that roughly one-third of men in the world are circumcised. Many are Muslims or Jews circumcised for religious reasons, but some parents also choose to circumcise their boys on health and hygiene grounds.



The court also said that circumcision on medical grounds was not illegal.

German doctors performing circumcisions that are not medically necessary have until now operated in an uncertain legal zone. Until now they could claim that they were unaware that performing a circumcision is a crime.

Even if a physician was later found guilty by a court, there was a legal loophole and he could claim that the law was improper and avoid punishment. That is now no longer the case.

'The ruling is enormously important above all for doctors because it's the first time that they have a legal certainty,' said Holm Putzke of the University of Passau. He has been calling for prohibition for years and added: “The court has, in contrast to many politicians, not allowed itself to be scared by the fear of being criticised as anti-Semitic or opposed to religion.

'This decision could not only affect future legal rulings but in the best case it could lead to a change of consciousness among the affected religions when it comes to respecting the basic rights of children.'



In late 1999, Germany’s top court ruled in favor of religious freedom, protecting the right to Islamic ritual slaughter and, by association, kosher slaughter.



The ruling came after an Islamic butcher challenged a 1995 German law banning the slaughter of animals without stunning them first – something that is against the laws of kosher and hallal.