Brussels, 07/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - The resolution adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE - see EUROPE 10935), putting circumcision on the same level as female genital mutilation, both being deemed to be violence against children, has caused anger in the Jewish community and, to a much lesser extent among Muslims, both in Europe and beyond its borders. Thus far, only the French Muslim Council (CFCM) - on Saturday - has criticised the resolution. The Europe-Israel Association says, in a press release, that the resolution is “anti-Jewish”. The association says the Council of Europe resolution states that children old enough to be consulted (thus Muslims) have been excluded from the law.
On Friday, in a press release reported by many sites within the EU, the Israeli Foreign Ministry describes the resolution as a “moral stain” and calls on the PACE to rescind it, stating that “circumcision of male children is an ancient religious tradition of two important religions, Judaism and Islam, and it is also common among some Christian circles”. Any comparison, it goes on to say, with the “barbaric practice of female genital mutilation” is “either appalling ignorance” or “defamation and anti-religious hatred”.
The strongest reactions have come from joint European and Israeli associations, such as the Europe-Israel Association, which says the Council of Europe has attacked holus bolus male circumcision and female genital mutilation. The two practices, it goes on, have - arbitrarily but carefully - been placed on the same level: thousands of woman have denounced the barbarity of excision but it would be difficult to find any Jewish men who complain of being “mutilated” eight days after their birth, according to Jewish tradition, later for Muslims, the association argues. It claims that only Jews have been targeted, with Muslims being outside the scope of this draft law. The adoption of the resolution will, the association says, lead to a recommendation: “Renounce Judaism or leave”. Launching a call to sign a petition, it says that Europeans do not like their Jews and never have done, having attacked Jews for 2,000 years. It says that Europeans have never lacked imagination in harassing Jews and now think they have found a new line of attack, demonisation of Israel by dint of smears and criticism clearly not having worked well. It took the opportunity to present a long list proving that Europe has always been anti-semitic.
The association of European Jewish organisations, the EJA, said that “the medical argument cannot be justified” and concluded that, if circumcision were to be banned in Europe, it would mean the end of any Jewish religious presence on the continent. Whether one is orthodox Jewish or not, any attempt to end this religious practice would result in Jews packing their bags and leaving Europe, it stated. (FB/transl.fl)