German ban on circumcision?
German ICCJ member says: ban is unconstitutional
| 29.06.2012
The Presidium and the Executive Board of the Coordinating Council declared:
"The inalienable, fundamental rights of the Federal Republic of Germany ensure the undisturbed practice of religion. (Article 4 of the Constitution). The circumcision of Jewish boys on the eighth day after birth is a biblical commandment given to Moses on Mount Sinai and thus an unrelinquishable part of Jewish religious practice. Even more: it is an expression of God's covenant with His people Israel. To criminalize the practice of circumcision means nothing less than declaring Jewish life in Germany in principle to be undesirable."
The Presidium and the Executive Board express their hope that the judgment of the District Court of Cologne (Köln LG, judgment of 05/07/2012, Ref 151 Ns 169/11) will soon be reviewed by the Federal Constitutional Court.
If this judgment - that a supposed right of self-determination re. circumcision of a child supersedes the right of free religious practice – is not rejected by a higher authority, then there would be no place in Germany for a religiously living Judaism, so the German Coordinating Council, "which would make Germany a unique case in the whole world."
At the same time the German Coordinating Council assured the Muslim community in Germany of its solidarity in this existential question.
Bad Nauheim, 27 June 2012