After a three-month national debate and lobbying from all over the world, a parliamentary committee in Iceland has shelved a proposed ban on male circumcision. The penalty for performing or organising a circumcision would have been a sentence of up to six years in prison.
The ban was proposed in February by Silja Dögg Gunnarsdóttir of the Progressive Party in the Althing, Iceland’s parliament. She described her bill as an attempt “to protect the interest of the child”. Circumcision of females had already been banned, she reasoned, why not of males? “Every individual, it doesn’t matter what sex or how old… should be able to give informed consent for a procedure that is unnecessary, irreversible and can be harmful,” she declared. “His body, his choice.”
Incredibly, Ms Gunnarsdóttir failed to consult Iceland’s tiny Jewish and Muslim communities and did not anticipate the uproar that ensued. “I didn’t think it was necessary to consult,” she told The Independent. “I don’t see it as a religious matter. Jews are welcome in Iceland. But this is about child protection and children’s rights. That comes first, and before the religious rights of the adult.”
Icelanders were divided. Polling showed that 50 percent favoured the bill and 37 percent opposed it, with the remainder undecided. Local religious leaders campaigned against it.
Some inconsistencies emerged. Intersex children are routinely operated upon, but without their consent. The bill cited the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child but Iceland has sometimes deported children born in Iceland without respecting their rights.
The bill appears to have sunk because lobbyists successfully stoked fears of religious discrimination. “The impact of this would be felt far beyond Iceland’s borders,” said a letter from the US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs. “This move would make Iceland the first and only European nation to outlaw circumcision. While Jewish and Muslim populations in Iceland may be small, your country’s ban would be exploited by those who stoke xenophobia and antisemitism in countries with more diverse populations.”
Didn't you post this a few days back? I asked you for a source on the article on the right, since it doesn't seem to exist or ever have existed.
James Jenkins
I want to call you a kike but you're probably just a fence sitting retard.
Joseph Ramirez
How does that contradict what I said in any way?
Jacob Bell
kids can't consent to sex and neither can they consent to genital mutilation simply because the parents believe in bronze age mythological war gods?
Lincoln Cruz
You think genital mutilation is perfectly acceptable in the name of religion, which is fucking insane.
Levi Lee
No, I said that a bill that specifically targets a religious practice is religious discrimination. Work on your reading comprehension.
Hudson Hill
but circumcision is a medical practice that is not exclusive to the religion, so it's not really just a "religious practice" at this point. it has become standard medical practice, regardless of the religious affiliation of anyone involved. It's an Islamic religious practice to stone adulterors to death but laws preventing this are not commonly criticized.
Eli Foster
That's only in the US, thanks to Kellogg. In Europe, AFIAK, circumcision on newborns is only done for religious reasons.
Zachary Taylor
Religious mutilation is still mutilation and should be outlawed.
Eli Richardson
God fucking damn it. We're not talking about baking a fucking cake for someone, we're talking about cutting the fucking nerve endings off of a kid's dick! You'd think that would be a bigger fucking deal!
Angel Anderson
It would be were the world not filled with its advocates.
William Evans
at least fucking agegate that shit, iirc in the Old Testament conversions were accepted in adults as long as they got cut
Logan Smith
FTFY
Luis Peterson
Genital mutilation is insane no matter what lens you look at it though. And there's no way to argue that circumcision isn't genital mutilation. It's an entirely pointless cosmetic procedure.
Camden Baker
I guess you think sharia law should be legal to since it's a religious practice. Fellate a shotgun.
Nathaniel Baker
There's your problem
Ryan Wood
so where are you guys headed when this site finally dies 100%?
William Smith
if I knew I'd be there already
Parker Clark
Its also about inducing subconcious trauma on the psyche, its also about thousands of $ for stem cell tissues to bio research, including face cream for sandra bollock and oprah. fucking dumb bitches. Its a cult blood sacrifice thing. It could be a racial breeding technique to steer the course of races and reproduction, to infect women, to make retarded kids, theres many subversive reasons for it
