Timelines

On May 7, 2012, the Cologne Regional Court announced in the second instance that male circumcision should be considered bodily harm and therefore made a punishable offense. The background to this is the circumcision of a Muslim boy* performed by a doctor, which resulted in post-operative bleeding. The Regional Court sees the incident as posing both a physical and psychological danger to the children concerned. Their welfare and right to self-determination take precedence over the religious motivations of their legal guardians. Since circumcision is part of a centuries-old tradition in the Jewish and Muslim faiths, members of both religions feel that the ruling restricts their religious freedom. Both the Central Council of Jews and the Central Council of Muslims in Germany have expressed concern and believe that this is a drastic encroachment on the religious communities' right to self-determination. The President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dr. Dieter Graumann, emphasizes that this practice is respected in every country in the world and calls on the German Bundestag to respond. The Bundestag finally complied with this demand when it passed the “Law on Religiously Motivated Circumcision of Boys” (§ 1631d BGB) in the third instance, which continues to allow circumcisions and legitimizes their performance by non-medical, expert persons from the religious community. The circumcision ruling has sparked a fundamental debate about non-Christian traditions in Germany. Representatives of Jewish organizations and institutions have repeatedly pointed out that a ban on circumcision could be interpreted as an act of anti-Semitism. The ritual is binding for the practice of the Jewish religion, and a ban would restrict religious practice. With regard to the Muslim faith, the circumcision debate, like the dispute over the headscarf ban (see Headscarf ban in schools, 2003) and the Sarrazin debate (see Sarrazin debate, 2010), is characterized by numerous assumptions about people of the Muslim faith. It is assumed that the Muslim faith uses “violent methods” and is therefore incompatible with “German Christian” values. Since the attacks of September 11 (see September 11, 2001), the extent of anti-Muslim racism in Europe and the US has increased.