Women today, eh?

The decision has been taken that along with protesters from Men Do Complain, J4MB supporters will NOT be wearing white garments marked with red stains, a change to the previous advice.

In mid July we wrote to a small number of senior Jewish and Muslim clerics, as well as a number of Jewish and Muslim organizations, concerning our position on male circumcision. Our blog post on the matter is here. We didn’t get any responses from Muslim clerics or organizations, and the only response we got from Jewish clerics and organizations was one from Milah UK, the body promoting circumcision for male Jewish infants in the UK. Their letter is here.

Traditional Jewish circumcision is known as Brit milah. An increasingly popular alternative does not involve genital cutting – Brit shalom (a naming ceremony).

Milah UK referred to two sources to justify male circumcision – Genesis 17:10-14, and Leviticus 12:3. Genesis and Leviticus are two of the books in the Torah, the central reference of the religious Judaic tradition. There is much in these books – as in most holy books – which we would today find repellent, such as putting to death homosexuals, adulterers etc.

The ‘pick and mix’ approach which advocates for male circumcision, but not other elements in these books, is indefensible. Anyone who circumcised male animals would surely find the criminal justice system falling on them like a ton of bricks – and quite rightly, too. Male cats and dogs have more legal protection than male humans.

The books are also, of course, in the Old Testament of the Bible. My thanks to Don for informing me that it’s possible to obtain a copy of the Bible (English Standard Version) on Kindle at no cost – here. If, like me, you don’t own a Kindle device, you can download Kindle books onto computers and other devices with Amazon’s free software. I invite you to download the book and read for yourself the text that is being used to justify the circumcision of eight-day-old male babies. I’m disinclined to call them ‘Jewish babies’ because the idea of a religious identity from birth offends me, especially in the context of the bodily ‘branding’ that is circumcision. And we shouldn’t forget that the high proportion of male infants in some parts of the world – the United States being a notable example – has been attributed in part to the influence of Christianity.

There is no requirement in the Qur’an for Muslims to be circumcised, but the procedure – Khitan – is very common among Muslims. Islam is currently the largest single religious group in which the practice is widespread.

A final note on Wikipedia, to which most of the links in this piece will take you. If you enter ‘Female genital mutilation’ you’ll reach Female genital mutilation. If you enter ‘Male genital mutilation’ you’ll reach Genital modification and mutilation, where the section on FGM precedes the section on MGM. What are the chances?

Our thanks to M for this.

On July 14 we posted a public challenge of Theresa May, at the same time publishing a blog post on the matter. The letter ended with this:

I have two questions for you, please consider them as FOI requests:

– Given that MGM demonstrably results in bodily harm, and often mental harm, on what grounds are the police declining to press charges against those carrying out the operations?

– Regardless of those grounds, will the government commit publicly to introducing legislation in this parliamentary term (i.e. before May 2020) to make non-therapeutic MGM of male minors illegal?

The fact that MGM is a cultural or religious requirement or expectation in certain faith traditions in the UK is irrelevant. Such grounds wouldn’t be deemed adequate for adherents of faith traditions in the UK to carry out FGM, and quite rightly.

We demand that male minors be given the same legal protection against genital mutilation as female minors – the sooner, the better.

Because we hadn’t received a response by the FOI deadline – 20 working days after receipt – we emailed the FOI team on 21 August, and were informed the letter hadn’t been received. This was a stalling tactic we’ve encountered elsewhere, most recently with DBIS. No matter. We were informed that the request was now registered, and we’d receive a response by 21 August – yesterday. We haven’t received one.

Could it be the Home Office wouldn’t want to reply to the FOI request in advance of the party conference, due to start on Sunday 4 October? I repeat my request for you to join us and support Men Do Complain in protesting near the conference venue in Manchester – details here.

Shocking. The start of the article:

I write about this story almost every year. This is the second time I wrote about it this year. For the last 12 years, United States forces worked with Afghan police and soldiers to fight the Taliban. Unfortunately, the people the U.S. forces work with rape boys. This is a cultural tradition that was ironically prohibited by the Taliban. Once the forces removed the Taliban from power and reinstated the previous warlords, those men went back to raping boys.

Not only did they go back to the practice of bacha bazi, but they do it brazenly. They make no effort to hide what they do, going so far as to bring boys to U.S. bases and rape them there. The State Department released a report last year about the situation, however, the concern was preventing future violence against women, not protecting boys.

In two weeks’ time we’ll be supporting Men Do Complain (MDC), a hardworking anti-MGM campaigning organization, at a protest outside the Manchester Central venue, during the first two days of the Conservative party conference – Sunday 4 October, and Monday 4 October. We’ll be handing out thousands of leaflets (A4, printed both sides) to politicians, delegates, the media, and others. More on the protest later in this blog post.

Regular followers of this blog know our #1 campaigning issue for the foreseeable future will be the non-therapeutic genital mutilation of male minors (henceforth ‘MGM’). It was one of 20 areas covered in our election manifesto (pp.9,10). Anyone who doesn’t understand why we consider MGM a grave assault upon the human rights of men and boys might like to familiarise themselves with some or all of the following materials:

William Collins’s blog piece (which explains, among much else, that the prime purpose of MGM is to diminish men’s pleasure during sex)

Global Survey on Circumcision Harm

A man circumcised when he was 18 years old reflects on the impact of the procedure

Mike Buchanan’s presentation to the 2015 AGM of 15 Square, Britain’s foremost anti-MGM charity

We know MGM has long been illegal (as an injury of an individual who cannot give informed consent) from a talk given by a prominent barrister in 2013. He also explained in detail how MGM contravenes UN and EU conventions.

In recent months we’ve learned more about Men Do Complain – MDC – a very active and dedicated anti-MGM organization, and have been highly impressed with their level of commitment. Their video channel is here.

We’ll be supporting MDC in a protest outside the Conservative party conference in the afternoon and evening of Sunday 4 October, the first day of the conference, when there will be plenty of media around to record (video as well as audio) what’s going on both inside and outside the conference centre. We’ll also be protesting the following day, Monday 5 October.

We invite you to join us, please email me mike@j4mb.org.uk if you expect to be there.

It surely doesn’t need to be said, but our protests will be respectful and non-violent, and we expect those who oppose our views to be likewise. Some of the women who support MDC and J4MB will be joining us, and we’ll capture the event – including any disturbances – with our own video equipment, for possible later publication on MDC and J4MB video channels.

We shall be handing out joint MDC/J4MB leaflets to politicians, delegates, and others, explaining the case for the government to make MGM specifically illegal at the earliest opportunity. It’s time for gender equality:

FGM has been specifically illegal in the UK since 1985 – 30 years ago.

We’ll be supplying more specific information about the protests nearer the day. The more people that attend the protests, the more impact we’ll make.

Thank you for your support of our campaign to spare male babies, infants, and children, the harm that is caused by MGM.

Our thanks to Ray for pointing us to this interesting article, published 12 days ago by the Telegraph. The comments stream is interesting too

Firstly, a warning. Please do not watch either video we’re linking to here, if you’re offended by strong language.

AVfM recently organized a gathering of MHRAs in North Carolina, mostly from the United States and Canada, some from elsewhere. Three days ago AVfM published a piece with a link to a two-minute-long video (recorded during the retreat) which some have found distasteful – among other criticisms – and have criticised AVfM for publishing it. The video is accessible via the second link in the piece.

AVfM have just published a video (43:25) of Paul Elam’s strong defence of the original video. It’s a robust, heartfelt, and impressive defence, and includes strong criticisms of the people Paul terms ‘coffee shop MHRAs’, who we would refer to as ‘keyboard warriors’.

I’ve long been a comedy buff, and I’m perfectly happy to concede the BBC has been the source of some priceless comedy series over my lifetime – Fawlty Towers being a particular favourite.

The quality of BBC comedy series has long been in decline, possibly because material has to gain the approval of the BBC’s political correctness brigade, a reliable way to strangle genuinely funny comedy ideas at birth. Hope springs eternal, however, and I’ve just watched People Time on BBC3. In my TV guide, the programme was described thus:

Lively comedy show pilot starring seven comedy rising stars (including Claudia O’Doherty and Ellie White). The skits cover a range of modern issues, big and small, from online dating and workplace sexism to mobile phones and junk mail – the shouty man in the street manages to be both silly and subversive.

Sounds like a riot, right? Er, no. I didn’t laugh once, and came close to smiling on only one occasion. The lowest point in this dismal waste of licence payers’ money was the aforementioned ‘shouty man in the street’ encountering three ‘No More Page 3’ campaigners on the street, 11:49 – 12:47.

The comedic premise of the sketch was that if men oppose feminists their male friends will desert them, and they will then have to grovel to feminists for acceptance. If there has ever been a less funny ‘comedy’ sketch broadcast on television or radio anywhere in the world, I invite you to send it to me. For obvious reasons, I exclude anything written by, or including, Kate Smurthwaite. Thank you.

The programme is available on iPlayer for the next 29 days, and we could save it for prosperity on our YouTube channel. But why would we want to? We get comfort from the knowledge that in a month’s time the programme won’t be available on iPlayer ever again.

Have a good weekend.