Five months ago, a judge in Cologne ruled that circumcision
was to be considered bodily harm and that religious freedom did not have
priority over the welfare of a child. All hell broke loose in the Jewish
community of Germany and Frau Merkel promised the Jewish community to sort it. She
has. Now, the Bundestag, the German parliament, has overruled the judge.
Merkel did not need much convincing. She did not want
Germany to be the one country that prevents Jews from practicing their
religious practices and rituals. This is understandable.
And yet, it is a bit of a shame, not because of the boys but because
it would have been interesting to see how the supreme constitutional court of
Germany would have dealt with this important question of how far you can go in
the name of religious freedom.
Everyone can breathe freely again and the little boys get
cut, or as some have it, mutilated. Take it from me: the trauma –
if there is trauma - does not last long.
