By Lisa De Bode, Contributor /July 17, 2012



A German court set off religious controversy late last week with its
ruling that the circumcision of young boys on religious grounds is
illegal. Some commentators categorize the ban as just one of many
legislative restrictions on religious minorities in Germany, and as part of growing religious intolerance in Europe.Reuters reports that the Cologne
court took action after police were alerted by a doctor who treated the
4-year-old son of first-generation Turkish immigrants Muhsin Sapci and
his wife, Gonca, for bleeding after the boy underwent circumcision. A
prosecutor sued the doctor in court.The court ruled that the
removal of the boy’s foreskin amounted to bodily harm and involved
intolerable health risks. The Economist writes that
circumcision was deemed to violate Germany’s constitutional protection
of individuals' physical integrity – religious freedom and parents’
rights came second – and thus should be considered a crime. The court
further suggested waiting until the age of 14 so boys themselves could
decide whether to be circumcised.Do you think you know Europe? Take our quiz!

German Chancellor Angela Merkel
intervened over the court’s decision last Friday by promising the
Muslim and Jewish communities that they are free to circumcise their
children. Meanwhile, the Guardian writes that the government is urgently looking for a way around the ban. Medical riskGiven
the legal uncertainty, medical practitioners are afraid lay people will
start performing the operation, and ritual circumcisions will go
underground. The New York Times reports
that the German Medical Association condemned the court's decision for
potentially exposing children to medical risk, but it also warned
surgeons not to perform circumcisions for religious reasons until legal
clarity was established.“Right now everything is controlled, most
people go to a doctor and the child is covered by insurance,” Muhsin
Sapci, the young boy’s father said. “If they try to outlaw it, it will
still be done, but differently, and that could have consequences.”Public outcryGermany
is home to 4 million Muslims, the second biggest community in Europe,
and to about 120,000 Jews. In a rare display of religious unity, the
leaders of both faiths teamed up in Brussels and Berlin last week to demand a reversal of the ban.The Economist writes that
Dieter Graumann, president of Germany’s Central Council of Jews,
asserted that the verdict, if it is upheld, “would make Jewish life in
Germany, just as it is blooming again, practically impossible.”