News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Jews and Muslims in Denmark are in an uproar about a bill to ban circumcision for boys under the age of 15, according to Yediot Ahronot. The country's National Council for Children and Ethics Council have both endorsed the proposal and only the parliament's medical committee can prevent it from being heard.

The National Council for Children argued that, "Circumcision is the irreversible damage to a child's body before he is given the chance to object." It also said the ban was a matter of equality, in the wake of a five-year-old ban on female circumscion.

Denmark's Chief Rabbi Bent Lexner – who is also a certified mohel (circumciser) in the community – told Yediot Ahronot, "The comparison between circumcision and the intentional mutilation of the female sex organ in certain societies is simply complete nonsense." He added, "If the law forbidding circumcision is ever passed in Denmark, Jews will have to leave the place they have been living in for hundreds of years."

Judaism specifies circumcsion when a boy is eight days old, unless medically dictated otherwise. Islam does not specify a date, but allows it through puberty.