Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Monday 26 February 2018

Opposition erupts as Iceland eyes banning most circumcisions

By EGILL BJARNASON tion about the proposed
Associated Press law.
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) "Circumcision is harmless if
— Icelandic lawmakers it's done at a hospital," he
are considering a law that said. "This bill is appealing
would ban the circumci- to people's emotion, not
sion of boys for non-med- evidence."
ical reasons, making it the He said circumcision was
first European country to do important to Muslims but
so. even more so to Jews.
Some religious leaders in "This is an attack on all re-
Iceland and across Europe ligion and especially Juda-
have called the bill an at- ism," he said.
tack on religious freedom. Rabbi Avi Feldman of the
It is seen as a particular Chabad Jewish Center,
threat by Jews and Muslims who last month became
who traditionally embrace Iceland's first permanent
the practice. rabbi since World War II,
Under the proposed law, says he hopes the bill does
the circumcision of boys not become law. In a state-
— removing the foreskin of ment to the AP, he said cir-
the penis, usually when the cumcision is a core Jewish
child is a newborn — would practice that serves as a
be viewed as equal to fe- In this Feb. 23, 2018, photo, Imam Salmann Tamimi addresses the congregation at The Reykjavík bedrock of Jewish life.
male genital mutilation Mosque during Friday midday prayers. He was hopeful that the
and punishable by up to six Associated Press "rights for people of all
years in prison. 4,000-year-old religious son said the 422 signatures Salmann Tamimi warned faiths will be preserved and
"This is fundamentally about practice. (a quarter of the coun- his multinational congrega- respected."q
not causing unnecessary They issued a joint state- try's practicing physicians,
harm to a child," said Silja ment Wednesday saying based on numbers from
Dogg Gunnarsdottir, law- circumcision violates the the Icelandic Medical As-
maker for the centrist Pro- United Nations Convention sociation) were collected
gressive Party, who intro- on the Rights of the Child in just 48 hours.
duced the bill this month. and also the physicians' Since 2006, only 21 boys
The proposed law calls cir- Hippocratic Oath that says: under the age of 18 have
cumcision a violation of "First, do no harm." been circumcised at Ice-
human rights "since boys "In Western societies, cir- landic hospitals or pri-
are not able to give an in- cumcision of healthy boys vate clinics, according to
formed consent of an irre- has no significant health Iceland's Directorate of
versible physical interven- benefits," the doctors' Health. The agency could
tion." statement read, citing a not say how many were for
Circumcision is not com- 2013 paper in the Ameri- religious reasons.
mon in Iceland, a small can Academy of Pediatrics Thorkelsson said the surgi-
Atlantic Ocean island na- journal. cal procedure is painful,
tion of 340,000 people The American academy it- and its possible complica-
that is overwhelmingly Lu- self says the health benefits tions are well known to Ice-
theran or atheist, with an of the practice outweigh landic doctors since most
estimated 100 to 200 Jews the risks but not by enough go abroad for training at
and about 1,100 practicing to recommend universal hospitals in northern Europe
Muslims. male circumcision. The U.S. or the United States where
The bill has eight co-spon- Centers for Disease Control circumcision is more com-
sors but is considered un- and Prevention says doc- mon.
likely to get a majority in tors should educate infant "For many doctors, it's an
the 63-seat Iceland par- boys' parents about the uncomfortable request
liament. It does not have health benefits of circumci- from parents," he said.
the formal backing of any sion, which it says reduces This view is not accepted in
government ministers but the transmission of sexu- Jewish and Muslim commu-
has drawn the support ally transmitted diseases in- nities. During Friday services
of 422 Icelandic doctors cluding HIV. at a prayer space above a
who favor outlawing the
Physician Eyjolfur Thorkels- home goods store, Imam