Which religions circumcise

It is regarded as a sign of the covenant with God. Find out more about Judaism and circumcision » Top. Islam Islamic scholars differ over whether circumcision is compulsory for Muslim males: some regard it as obligatory, whereas others view it as an act to be recommended. Circumcision is not mentioned in the Qur'an but Prophet Muhammad spoke about the practice. Find out more about Islam and circumcision » Top. Christianity Although the Old Testament refers to circumcision as a sign of the covenant with God, it is not laid down as a requirement in the New Testament.

Find out more about Christianity and circumcision » Top. Find out more Female circumcision Top. See also. I could pick up our passports and take a plane and be out of the situation for good. I wanted to believe that, in time, our relationship could heal.

Again, the difficulty of the moment seemed to pass. I visited family and friends in the UK a few months later, taking our son for his first birthday. I returned to Turkey and not long after became pregnant with our second son. In the sweltering heat of Istanbul, our son would often toddle naked around our home. I overheard my husband joking with him one day about his future circumcision. I also realised children must be psychologically prepared by their adult carers to undergo circumcision.

Boys may be nervous, but they also become objects of pride. Circumcision is seen as a rite of passage towards becoming a man. Attempting to prepare our son for circumcision felt like a betrayal of our compromise that our son would be free to choose for himself. When he started to wake up crying, talking of nightmares of being cut, I objected more strongly to any discussion of the matter until he was older.

I sought to reassure my child that no one would hurt him, that his baba had only been joking and would stop. He asked questions and my husband wanted to answer. When my husband asked me to research male circumcision to understand the benefits, I agreed. At one level, wishing the tensions within our family might be resolved, I was open to finding out whether the claims of benefits might be true.

But turning to the internet, what I found was an overwhelming amount of information supporting remaining intact. I began by bringing up the most obvious negative argument of resulting harm. My husband maintained it was far safer in medical clinics than the rural homestead in which he had been circumcised. I had seen a sepia-faded photograph, a large crowd of men surrounding him on what looked like a hot and dusty day to witness his circumcision as a young child.

I suggested he read a Muslim site which contained some of the most extensive and detailed medical research I had found together with Islamic religious argument against circumcision. He flatly refused. But I felt I was talking to a wall — he simply did not want to discuss it further. And circumcision, he said, was going to happen. Our marriage suffered increasingly and circumcision seemed to have cracked its foundations. I told my husband that I wanted us to move as a family to the UK, believing we could all be happier there.

Girls that are circumcised are turned into targets vulnerable to physical and mental abuse without the capacity of thinking, understanding and judgment. Cultural, social, psychological and economic conditions appear to be the major factors in persisting the practice of female circumcision. Esthetic concerns may also be added to these factors. It is also stated that the concepts of tradition and religion are also strong encouragers [ 25 ].

In addition to this opinion, many of the Muslims and academics in the west argue that circumcision is more related to culture than religion. Likewise, the authentic and apodictic references of Islam reject female circumcision. Raising public awareness has a major importance in combating female circumcision. While the public is enlightened religiously and medically, the rights of women in this area must be protected legally through legal enforcement.

The Egyptian Mufti Office has announced that they are against female circumcision and that this practice has no religious basis. Similarly, the Religious Affairs Administration of the Republic of Turkey also states that female circumcision is a procedure that the religion Islam prohibits. Thus, a religion that desires to harm and sicken the bodies of girls and women is unthinkable.

How could religion order to cut off an organ created by Allah? No organ or anything else is created by Allah randomly [ 22 ].

Islam does not allow human nature to be disrupted. On the other hand, male circumcision has been categorized as Sunnah and wajib that which is proven on the basis of ambiguous evidence on the basis of Islamic law and certain health benefits.

The importance of informing the public and education in ending the practice of female genital circumcision that has no religious basis and endangers the future of children and affects them is evident. Also, the society must acquire a high level of consciousness with the capacity to handle and resolve the problems of children to protect them instead of maiming them by circumcision.

Families that want these harmful customs and traditions to come to an end want to enlighten the public and also demand laws and punishments that the whole society will be bound by. Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.

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Tradition plays a major part for many ethnic groups. In some settings where circumcision is the norm, there is discrimination against non-circumcised men. For the Lunda and Luvale tribes in Zambia, or the Bagisu in Uganda, it is unacceptable to remain uncircumcised, to the extent that forced circumcisions of older boys are not uncommon. Among the Xhosa in South Africa, men who have not been circumcised can suffer extreme forms of punishment, including bullying and beatings.

Social reasons behind male circumcision are becoming ever more common. A survey in Denver, US where circumcision occurs shortly after birth, found that parents, especially fathers, of newborn boys cited social reasons as the main determinant for choosing circumcision e. In a number of countries, socio-economic factors also influence circumcision prevalence, especially in countries with more recent uptake of the practice such as English-speaking industrialised countries.

When male circumcision was first practised in the United Kingdom in the late 19th and early 20th century, it was most prevalent among the upper classes. In the US, a review of 4. Perceived health and sexual benefits In more recent times, perceptions of improved hygiene and lower risk of infections through male circumcision have driven the spread of circumcision practices in the industrialised world.