Some Religious Leaders See a Threat as Europe Grows More Secular

Article here. Excerpt:

'But the debate over ritual circumcision shows that the tensions extend even further.

Rabbi Goldberg does not seem especially worried. Anyone can file a complaint against anyone else in Germany, and he may never face formal charges. Rabbi Goldberg has not hired a lawyer and declined an offer from one who was willing to handle the case for free.

The more serious threat, in the eyes of Rabbi Goldberg and many Jews, Muslims and Christians in Europe, comes from what they see as an attack by secular society on religious ritual, on faith itself. A seemingly insignificant decision by a lower court in Cologne, against a doctor who circumcised a Muslim boy, has fed a rapidly spreading drive to criminalize a practice that is core to Jewish and Muslim belief.

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Muslims express similar sentiments. “There are more than a few people who have something against Muslims and Jews, and they are taking advantage of this,” said Aiman A. Mazyek, chairman of the Central Committee of Muslims in Germany. “They can hide behind this discussion. They can say what they always wanted to say.”
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“In Judaism, the health of the baby is more important than anything,” Rabbi Goldberg said. The harm, he added, would come if the baby was not circumcised. “A man who is not circumcised cannot understand the context of the Bible,” he said. “It is very, very important.”'