On January 10th Egyptian physician, Dr. Mohamed Fahmy, alerted GALDEF about an article published in The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom, in which the Crown Prosecution Service appears to be weighing whether to recognize nontherapeutic childhood penile circumcision as a bodily injury that could categorize the practice as criminal assault.
The CPS draft document asserts “…this can be a painful and harmful practice, if carried out incorrectly or in inappropriate circumstances. It may be a form of child abuse or an offence against the person…”
In The Guardian article, Jonathan Arkush, a former president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and co-chair of Milah UK, responded saying, “Circumcision is a core part of our identity. I have never met any Jewish man who thinks they’ve been harmed by circumcision.”
In response, on January 11th GALDEF Executive Director Tim Hammond contacted the CPS through its website and provided links to at least half a dozen published studies as evidence of long-term adverse consequences resulting even from circumcisions meeting the standard of care. See attached. He also provided the writer at The Guardian with those studies, and alerted him to the existence of Orla Yehudim, the new international Jewish genital autonomy advocacy group, which was specifically formed to publicly represent dissenting voices in the Jewish community and to respond when influential religious groups attempt to dismiss circumcision harm or downplay human rights issues.The Guardian writer immediately wrote back expressing his gratitude to Tim, saying “I wish I’d spoken to you before writing the article. But this is an issue that we will continue to follow, so please keep me posted.”
Hammond encouraged Fahmy, who has published two voluminous medical textbooks, one about the prepuce and another about the harms of circumcision, to contact CPS and The Guardian writer with his own thoughts about common misconceptions regarding Islamic circumcision practices, notably the false belief that the Qur’an demands circumcision. Hammond also alerted Orla Yehudim to the article and the statements by Arkush, inviting the group to contact CPS and The Guardian writer. As a professional courtesy, Hammond also provided members of the National Secular Society (U.K.) and 15 Square (U.K.) with copies of his correspondence.
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