Two days ago I was interviewed by John Vernon-Smith for his show on BBC 3 Counties Radio. The other guest was Dr Simon Hochhauser, a co-chairman of Milah UK, the organization charged with promoting the mutilation of baby boys’ genitals in the UK.

We’ve just added the piece to our Vimeo library of MGM-related pieces, where you’ll also find the heated discussion I had with Dr H on the same show three months ago. The two pieces have something in common – Dr H is defending the indefensible, and he surely knows it. A tip of the hat to John Vernon-Smith for his relentless challenging of Dr H.

Our thanks to Patrick for this piece in yesterday’s Guardian. The idea that education will ever end MGM is a fantasy held by those afraid of confronting those who mutilate boys’ genitals on religious and/or cultural grounds, and benefit financially. It ignores the psychology behind why the practise continues – males have to be taught to attach value to their mutilations, in order that they circumcise their own sons. It ignores the empathy gender gap. And the article doesn’t even point out that MGM is already illegal in the UK. An extract:

Personally, I would like to see an end to all non-medical infant circumcision, but I recognise that any attempt at a legal ban is entirely the wrong approach. Rightly or wrongly, it would be perceived as an attempt to force assimilation on Jewish and Muslim communities, and would require them to leave the country in order to observe their religion. It would also encourage the very same backstreet, blackmarket practices that pose by far the greatest medical risks.

A similar argument could, of course, be used for FGM.

The piece has attracted 658 comments so far, the one with the most upvotes (227) is from ‘bettycallmeal’:

It’s absolute barbarism. I say this as a man brought up Jewish and ritually mutilated at the age of 8 days, obviously without my consent.

I don’t give a toss about what the Bible or Quran says when it comes to inflicting savage pain and permanent bodily alterations to babies, and neither should the law. Religions were very clever at securing the next generation of adherents hundreds of years ago by forcing parents to brand their children on pain of eternal damnation. It’s ridiculous now though and should be banned.

And if people have to leave the country to observe their religion as a result, so be it.

 

 

 

Our thanks to P for this. Proof that males are viewed as sub-human in the Philippines… as in the UK, US, Canada…

The newspaper headline – in the Daily Mail – was preceded with, ‘Ouch!’. Let’s do a gender switch, and see how that looks:

Ouch! More than 300 pre-teen girls go under the knife on school tables in a mass circumcision in the Philippines

[Note added 11.5.16: Many proponents of MGM, in the Jewish community and elsewhere, support MGM on the grounds of alleged potential or real health benefits, to men and/or their sexual partners. Does science support that position? For the answer, we refer you to a paper co-authored by Brian D Earp, a scientist and ethicist at the University of Oxford – here.]

[Note added 6.5.06: The first protest in Golders Green will start outside Dr Martin Harris’s clinic at 1pm on Thursday, 12 May. Further details below. We will then be walking down the Finchley Road to the offices of The Jewish Chronicle, and then possibly Golders Green tube station, ending at 6pm. More details below.]

[Note added 30.4.16: On 22 March we staged the largest anti-MGM protest ever held in the UK, outside the Thornhill Clinic, Luton – the largest private circumcision clinic in the UK. Our blog piece on the matter is here, a video (9:19) of the event here.]

This blog post updates an earlier one on this subject, officially confirms a change in the date of the Golders Green protests from 5 May to 12 May, and provides a few more details including a few photographs.

I am pleased to announce three more anti-MGM protests will take place before the London Conference. One of the speakers at the conference will be the American researcher Tim Hammond, who’ll be giving a new talk on the Global Survey of Circumcision Harm.

Our last three protests have been successful, and attracted increasing numbers of supporters – the first outside the Conservative party conference (October 2015), the second in Parliament Square on International Men’s Day (November 2015), the third recently in Luton, outside the Thornhill Clinic, the leading private clinic in the UK where male minors’ genitals are mutilated on non-therapeutic grounds for financial gain. The third protest was the largest-ever anti-MGM protest ever held in the UK.

The next protests, 1pm – 6pm on Thursday 12 May, will be in Golders Green, and we expect it will be even more successful. We would recommend that people in the Jewish community – and outside it – who are prepared to explore the case against circumcision visit a website with no connection to this one, Jews Against Circumcision. From the website:

We are a group of educated and enlightened Jews who realize that the barbaric, primitive, torturous, and mutilating practice of circumcision has no place in modern Judaism.

Rabbi Moses Maimonides himself acknowledged that circumcision is done to desensitize the penis and curb masturbation.

Jews are some of the smartest people in the world. We are 1/3rd of 1% of the population, yet we hold 33% of Nobel prizes. We are smart enough to understand that mutilating a little boys’ penis is not an acceptable practice in modern times.

We shall be protesting outside at least two locations on 12 May:

– a clinic where circumcisions are performed by Dr Martin Harris, who was recently added by A Voice for Men to its Known Genital Mutilators directory. We see from his website that he charges £395.00 to mutilate baby boys’ genitals. The clinic is the Temple Fortune Health Centre, 23 Temple Fortune Lane, London NW11 7TE. A map of the area is here. The clinic is in an appropriately shabby building, despite being in a prosperous area:

– the offices of The Jewish Chronicle – 28 St Albans Lane, London NW11 7QE, very near Golders Green tube station. A map of the area is here. The offices can be reached via either entrance of St Alban lane, but the quickest way to get there is to walk a short distance down the Finchley Road, then turn left into the lane, after a charity shop. The offices are visible from Finchley Road:

A more close-up image of the offices:

We may then walk to protest outside Golders Green tube station.

The second protest will be over 1pm – 6pm on Wednesday 1 June, outside the Home Office – 2 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DF – because the Home Office is responsible for the police, and the police (acting with the CPS) aren’t bringing prosecutions against the people carrying out the criminal offence of MGM. In the Home Office response to our FOI request last year, the department didn’t deny MGM is illegal, but evaded the question of why it doesn’t prosecute the criminals carrying out the procedure. A map of the area is here.

The third protest will be over 1pm – 6pm on Wednesday 15 June, outside the Head Office of the NSPCC – Weston House, 42 Curtain Road, London EC2A 3NH. A map of the area is here. An email exchange in our possession proves that the NSPCC couldn’t care less about this unnecessary, cruel, and illegal procedure being inflicted on so many male minors in the UK every year.

Wise words.

Our thanks to T for this piece in yesterday’s Jewish Business News. I did not know Alicia Silverstone is Jewish. You learn something new every day.

My thanks to Patrick for pointing me to an interesting piece in the Telegraph today. Unfortunately there’s far too much material from Dr Simon Hochhauser of Milah UK, but the rest of the content is well worth reading. Be sure to cast your vote on the important question at the end.

On 29 January Dr H and I sparred on Jonathan Vernon-Smith’s show on BBC 3 Counties Radio, the file is in our Vimeo MGM library, here (41:03), along with the resulting call-in session. This morning we were both on the programme again, JVS interviewed us in succession this time, and afterwards the callers were almost all supportive of our position on MGM. That file should be on our YouTube and Vimeo channels within the next 24 hours.

I’ve just been on BBC 3 Counties Radio, discussing the case in which Mrs Justice Roberts ruled that two boys were not to be circumcised at the behest of their Muslim father (the mother was opposed to the procedure). Afterwards Jonathan Vernon-Smith discussed the matter with Dr Simon Hochhauser of Milah UK, the Jewish organization promoting male circumcision. Vernon-Smith was commendably challenging, and listeners were left in no doubt that Hochhauser was seeking to defend the indefensible.

I invite you to call in to the show – 03459 455555 – and explain your support for an end to MGM. We plan to post the programme, including the phone-in, on our Vimeo channel.

Our thanks to M for informing us of some good news. The end of the article:

The barrister lost the right to appeal of her conviction in 2015, but avoided paying court costs of £89,246.33 after revealing she owed the taxman £150,000, and had been forced to sell her flat to her son to raise capital.

The Bar Standards Board found that Briscoe had engaged in conduct which was dishonest and discreditable to a barrister, engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice, and diminished public confidence in the legal profession.

As a result, she has been banned from the profession.

Tribunal chair Veronica Hammerton, said: ‘Ms Briscoe’s actions were a serious and consistent departure from professional standards.

‘This is a serious matter, and it is quite clear that serious harm has been caused to the administration of justice and to the reputation of the Bar.

‘It is an aggravating fact that she tried to blame the police for inaccuracy in a witness statement.

‘She has continued to maintain she is not guilty of the offences for which she is convicted.

‘No other sentence can be imposed other than disbarment.’

Briscoe, of Clapham, who was not present at the hearing.

Our thanks to A Voice for Men for this. We’ve archived Dr Cohen’s website, including the home page from which this is drawn:

Congratulations (Mazel Tov) on the birth (or the expected arrival) of your son. I am a full time GP and a mohel (ritual circumciser) for the London and South East UK Progressive Jewish community. I have been performing circumcisions since 1991 and I usually perform three or four a week.

If Dr Cohen has been mutilating the genitals of three or four baby boys a week since he started in 1991 – 25 years ago – we calculate that’s around 3,750 – 5,000 boys he’s mutilated, and of course the operation was illegal throughout the period, as it remains today.

Dr Cohen’s website doesn’t state what he charges for the procedure, but we shall email him in a moment to ask that question.

Only recently we learned that Dr Martin Harris (a doctor / mohel in Golders Green) charges £395 for each newborn boy’s foreskin amputation. I am informed that Dr Harris’s website, in which he revealed the price, has been taken down, but not before we archived it – the fourth link in our blog piece on Dr Harris.

Dr Cohen’s contact details are here.