Commenting on the expected and predictably flawed bill to permit non-therapeutic ritual circumcision of male minors in Germany, Walter Russell Mead describes the situation (emphasis added):
We’ve been on the lookout for something like this happening, since both Germany’s leaders and the parliament have previously voiced opposition to the earlier barbaric court ruling which had the effect of criminalizing a key ritual practice of Judaism and Islam. We leave the last word to Dieter Graumann, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany: “It is a clear political signal that Jews and Muslims are still welcome in Germany. We are happy that Jewish commandments and Jewish life are not being pushed into illegality.â€
Somehow, the correct version of the world according to Walter Russell Mead is this: Surgically altering the healthy genitals of their children – sons only, of course, of course – is a “basic human freedom” for parents. The effort to protect the rights of those boys to their physical integrity and self-determination – rights their sisters unquestionably possess for their legally-protected prepuces – should be described as “barbaric”.
Walter Russell Mead needs to have a think on a few critical human rights topics and what freedom means.