Jewish communities to coordinate debate on circumcision
Austria's Jewish community (IKG) said recently it was
working jointly with its German and Swiss counterparts to keep religious
circumcision legal, after repeated calls for an end to the practice.
The IKG was organizing an international coordinating
group with the Jewish communities in neighboring Germany and Switzerland, IKG
president Oskar Deutsch told the Austria Press Agency on Monday.
This follows a heated debate that began last month when a
court in the western German city of Cologne ruled that circumcision – observed
by both Muslims and Jews on religious grounds – was tantamount to grievous
bodily harm.
A couple of hospitals in Switzerland followed suit,
saying they would at least temporarily suspend such operations.
The governor of Austria's westernmost Vorarlberg
province, Markus Wallner, meanwhile issued a provisional recommendation to
hospitals not to perform circumcisions, even on religious grounds.
This prompted an unprecedented joint call by Austrian
Jews, Muslims and Christians on Friday for the government to "issue a
clear commitment to religious freedom and to the legality of male
circumcision."
In Germany too, MPs adopted a cross-party motion calling
on the government to protect religious circumcision.
Talking to APA, Deutsch said Monday he was convinced that
"a law to protect religious circumcision for men will be passed in
Germany."
The status quo in Austria, which already allows the
practice, will also be maintained, he said confidently.
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