Religions fight for right to mutilate babies.

[Mr Sloane]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18833145

[Steve Crook]

There's nothing like a nice, well balanced, unbiased headline.
And that was nothing like a nice, well balanced, unbiased headline

Steve

[will.15]

Count me among the mutilated.

I figured correctly what that was about when I saw the headline.

[GRAEME]

I guess it will take a lot more time before Jews and Muslims come to regard this practice as redundant. But that is for those faith groups to do, no matter what outsiders (including myself) think.

It is outrageous of the secular state to try and impose change on these groups.

[Richard_in_wales]

Strange, I never thought of myself as having been 'mutilated' nor has my son, never heard my father or grandfather talk of being mutilated either.

[GRAEME]

Strange, I never thought of myself as having been 'mutilated' nor has my son, never heard my father or grandfather talk of being mutilated either.

Maybe not but that is what it is literally. Except in a very small number of cases there is no practical or medical purpose for it.

That isn't to say that it is harmful, necessarily - although there is a lot of anecdotal evidence that it is.

[Moor Larkin]

Casts a whole new light on the website anyhow........

Give your son a Brit, and he loses nothing more than a bit of skin, but he gains immediate entry into the four-thousand-year-old covenant of Abraham. That is a gift you will not regret giving.
http://www.chabad.org/library/articl...n-Barbaric.htm

I love it when I learn something new..........

[Heinrich]

This was a legal decision based on human rights and the state's duty to protect children from assault. What is not remarkable is that the politicians in the Bundesrepublik with a characteristic sensitivity not to offend Jews on account of German collective guilt for The Holocaust will resist staying on the right side of the law.

[Moor Larkin]

There's also a long-standing Western whinge about the animal slaughter methods deriving from the Middle East.
Tuesday, 10 June, 2003
The method of animal slaughter used by Jews and Muslims should be banned immediately, according to an independent advisory group.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/2977086.stm

Maybe the Jewish community could find some common ground with the Muslims about all this Western pressure on their traditions. Get together for a change, like the Irish do with their rugby.

[Richard_in_wales]

Mutilation :
"an injury that causes disfigurement or that deprives you of a limb or other important body part." Well I've not been disfigured, lost a limb or important body part, so its not mutilation and indeed forms the covenant between you and the man upstairs. The Brit Milah/Bris is very important to us.

From an aesthetic point of view I'm much happier being a roundhead than some awful wrinkly old cavalier.

[Mr Sloane]

There's nothing like a nice, well balanced, unbiased headline.
And that was nothing like a nice, well balanced, unbiased headline

Steve

My headline sensationalist I agree but in what way is it incorrect.

[Steve Crook]

My headline sensationalist I agree but in what way is it incorrect.

Did I say it was incorrect?

Steve

[will.15]

Religions fight for right to ancient religious custom nobody had a problem with until recently.

[Nimuae]

I am not of the Jewish faith so I may be wrong here - but isn't it done by someone (Mohel ?) specially trained for the purpose - as part of the naming ceremony when the boy is 8 days old?

Not sure about Islam. My concern it about it being banned would be the increase in neo-natal deaths when people start doing DIY versions ! The claim that the boy could wait until he was older to choose his religion certainly wouldn't wash with Islam.

[Arfur Teacake]

Britain is doing at least doing one good thing in the world and that is gradually pushing religion/s into the dustbin of history in its own country.

More churches into bars/private homes please

[Steve Crook]

Britain is doing at least doing one good thing in the world and that is gradually pushing religion/s into the dustbin of history in its own country.

More churches into bars/private homes please

Steve

[Heinrich]

Religions fight for right to ancient religious custom nobody had a problem with until recently.

Tell that to the girls who are subjected to female circumcision as part of their society's culture.

[moonfleet]

Tell that to the girls who are subjected to female circumcision as part of their society's culture.

Female circumcision is a definitive terrible sexual mutilation in purpose that the woman won't have clitoridian pleasure, for the men it's a complete different matter, it's supposed to be a "valorisation" of their maleness (or futur maleness ), and well it's just a "little" skin piece that is taken of ... Besides, it's rather an old custom and hygienic matter in hot climate countries, where there were Arabs and Jews long ago...
Like pork, that before becoming a religious prohibition, was because of an hygienic matter.

[GRAEME]

Female circumcision is a definitive terrible sexual mutilation in purpose that the woman won't have clitoridian pleasure, for the men it's a complete different matter, it's supposed to be a "valorisation" of their maleness (or futur maleness ), and well it's just a "little" skin piece that is taken of ... Beside, it's rather an old custom and hygienic matter in hot climate countries, where there were Arabs and Jews long ago...
Like pork, that before becoming a religious prohibition, was because of an hygienic matter.

The foreskin is very sensitive and its removal is said to decrease sexual pleasure. Its purpose is to protect the the glans which will also become desensitized over the years if it is exposed.

I'm glad I have mine, but what you've never had you never miss, I guess.

"Richard of Wales" ...and indeed forms the covenant between you and the man upstairs

I don't have a man upstairs - there is a man next door. But whatever covenant I may or may not have with him is definitely non-genital!

[moonfleet]

Graeme, I'm making a bit of a digression, but do you know what is called a french letter ?? I've just seen this...