This story, from Yahoo, about Dutch politician Geert Wilders, is a little confusing, as to if he is a growing power or not.
What makes this interesting is that an Israeli Rabbi, Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger,♠ has written to Mr Wilders, calling for his party, the Freedom Party, to stop backing a ban on ritual slaughter (of cattle). The ban was introduced by Animal Rights advocates. In a pluralistic society claims for "rights" inevitably conflict. However, in this case the rights of Jews and Muslims go in the same direction.
The rights of minorities can be easily stepped on. Earlier in the year a German State Court ruled that circumcision was wrong. Now a Rabbi has been indicted, per The Huffington Post.
UPDATE: Turns out these are complaints by private citizens against rabbis for offering services. Still, not a good thing.
You may think circumcision is dumb, and I may agree, but like ritual in the slaughter of cattle, these religious doctrines go back 1300 to 3000 years.♥ We have to be careful about imposing our own views on others.
Regards — Cliff
♠ Nice hat at the Photo in the Wikipedia article.
♥ Turns out in the areas of circumcision and Kosher/Halal food I am for providing wide religious latitude.
The coin flip came up NPR, as this has been covered in many places this past week: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/08/27/159955340/pediatricians-decide-boys-are-better-off-circumcised-than-not
ReplyDeleteThe recent American Academy of Pediatrics study referenced above shows clear health benefits to circumcision that far outweigh any risks.