(ANSAmed) - LJUBLJANA, FEBRUARY 7 - The religious leaders of
the Islamic community in Slovenia, which counts around 50,000
Muslims, most of them Bosnians, Kosovans and Albanians, today
harshly condemned the views of the Slovenian office for the
protection of civilian and human rights, which last week called
''the circumcision for ritual and religious purposes of children
below the age of 15'' a form of ''violation of the integrity of
their body and of their rights."
The office believes that the practice of circumcising
children ''has an criminal element'' in it, and asks
''physicians not to carry out the interventions if they are not
justified for health reasons."
The religious leaders of the Islamic community on the other
hand state that these views ''represent a serious violation of
Muslim rights, encouraging the stigmatisation of children and
intolerance." A statement reads that circumcision is an ancient
tradition among Muslims and Jews ''which not even anti-religious
authorities have tried to ban."
Moreover, the imams in Slovenia claim, the practice in
Slovenian hospitals, where circumcision for ritual purposes ''is
already banned'' is not based on the law, and represents ''a
violation of religious freedom." Slovenian Muslims are forced to
go abroad to have the intervention carried out. (ANSAmed).
