Iceland Is Trying to Ban Male Circumcision

As a Reformed Baptist and an American, I don’t have a personal stake in this particular battle over religious liberty. However, since progressives in this country look up to Iceland, the small island country’s push to ban male circumcision may have negative ramifications for overall religious freedom in this country, not to mention around the globe.

According to Religion News Service, “The legislation being debated by Iceland’s Parliament would impose a six-year jail term on anyone who ‘removes part or all of (a child’s) sexual organs’ for nonmedical reasons.”

In other words, Iceland wants to throw people in prison for practicing their religion.

As noted, I don’t particularly have a dog in this specific fight, but it is fascinating (and scary) to watch progressives openly demonstrate their anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. The problem with that, besides being evil, is that it continues to signal that progressives would love nothing more than to squash all religion under their “tolerant” thumb. And make no mistake, American progressives adore Icelandic progressives. Pretty soon, our home-grown progressives will figure out how to throw religious people in this country into prison.

The article in RNS reveals that Muslims find this proposed legislation to be a naked attack on religion in general. “It’s an attack on freedom of religion,” Ahmad Seddeeq, the Egyptian-born imam of the Islamic Cultural Center of Iceland, said.

The article points out that:

While the practice is often associated with Judaism, a 2007 report by the World Health Organization said Muslims are the largest religious group to perform male circumcision. An estimated 30 percent of all males globally are circumcised, and about two-thirds of them are Muslim, the organization said.

However, it’s not just Muslims who are upset about the proposed law that has support in Iceland’s parliament.

In the United States, 98 percent of Jewish men are circumcised, according to the world agency. The organization also said there is substantial evidence that male circumcision protects against diseases, such as urinary tract infections, syphilis, invasive penile cancer and HIV.

[…]

Milah U.K., a British group that protects the Jewish community’s right carry out religious circumcision, said, “For a country such as Iceland, that considers itself a liberal democracy, to ban it, thus making sustainable Jewish life in the country impossible, is extremely concerning.”

Whether you’re a Jew, Muslim, or Christian, Iceland’s proposed law that will imprison people for practicing their religious beliefs is deeply troubling. There is truth and warning in the following words that were shared by RNS: “Protecting the health of children is a legitimate goal of every society, but in this case (it is being used) without any scientific basis, to stigmatize certain religious communities,” said Cardinal Reinhard Marx, president of the Brussels-based Catholic Church in the European Union.

What Cardinal Reinhard Marx forgot to add is that progressives around the world are desperately trying to find more ways to “stigmatize certain religious communities.”