Ending the non-therapeutic circumcision of male minors – Male Genital Mutilation, MGM – in the UK has been the leading campaign of J4MB over the past two years. We have considerably increased public awareness that MGM is illegal, being at least Actual Bodily Harm under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, and probably Grievous Bodily Harm. It would require a parliamentary override for MGM to be legal, and that has never existed. No exemptions to the law in England and Wales are permissible on religious or cultural grounds.
Mike Buchanan will tomorrow present a ‘written information’ – a document outlining the details of a private prosecution, here – at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court, charging Joseph Spitzer, a prominent London-based doctor and mohel (Jewish ritual circumciser), with inflicting Actual Bodily Harm, a criminal offence under the OAPA 1861. Spitzer claims to have circumcised thousands of boys over his 35-year ‘career’, presumably most of them at just eight days of age, in line with Jewish tradition.
Last December I confronted Dr Spitzer at his workplace – here (video, 3:00). A Voice for Men then added him to its Known Genital Mutilators directory – here.
In a press release to be emailed shortly to leading journalists, Mike Buchanan states:
Male Genital Mutilation is illegal in the UK, it’s a human rights violation under UN and EU conventions, and it’s equally as unethical as Female Genital Mutilation (Brian D Earp, University of Oxford ethicist). It results in physical and sometimes psychological harm, and it has no place in modern Britain.
Justice for Men & Boys 
Nice one Mike 🙂
I mentioned this over on /r/mensrights, but I’ll post it here in case it’s helpful
You might also want to look into the United Nations “Rights of the Child” as well… whilst I’m not a lawyer, Article 19 is defiantly violated by circumcision, as is possibly 14, 24, 34, 36,39 and 40
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Thanks Dulius, UNCRC is one of a number of human rights conventions violated by MGM – yet the Children’s Commissioner for England claims that British children enjoy all the protection of UNCRC!
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Take a look at this and consider.
http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/2-toddlers-died-after-mom-left-them-in-hot-car-to-teach-%E2%80%98a-lesson%E2%80%99-police-say/ar-BBD7ppd?li=AAmiR2Z&ocid=spartandhp
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what a vile person that parent is.
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Together with the Balvinder Mehat case, this will begin to exert some much needed pressure on those who practice this abomination and continue to raise public awareness. Great news!
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I would hope that both Mehat and Spitzer are both taken to task over their practice to head off any attempt at derailing this action with accusations of antisemitism or Islamophobia.
i would hope that the general medical council stop pandering to cultural practice ahead of the rights of the child, and I wouldn’t be surprised that the feminists either keep quiet or attack men over this ( either way they look bad)
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It is incredible that this practice still occurs in developed countries.
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I wish you every success with this initiative Mike. Every action against this savage crime against defenceless baby boys cannot but tend to turn public perception just a little more to the anti side and so gradually build a consensus.
Good luck.
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Great stuff. The cutters are under attack from many sides now. Public awareness, and outrage, is growing.
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Good, it’s about time the general public was made more aware of this cruelty and the outrageous nonsense used to justify it. If anyone reading this wants to know how necessary infant circumcision is, just look to the Nordic countries – where it circumcision is literally as rare as rocking horse shit.
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As this and the police case (not of course a prosecution as yet) should indeed raise the profile of the case. They would be important test cases and as such should be supported by the Equality Commission in its role of testing equality law by supporting important cases. I presume that won’t happen !
I don’t know but can well imagine that the reason there hasn’t been a previous Crown or Private prosecution is because no one in the establishment wants to rattle this cage simply because its so widespread and practiced in politically (in its widest sense) influential communities (of course the complete reverse of FGM).
It is also of course a test of feminists as this is a practice of avowedly “patriarchal” communities performed by men. However I expect total silence as the victims are boys and thus far feminists have shown no stomach for confronting actual “patriarchal” communities, so much less likely to accede in gentlemanly fashion.
The fig leaf that covers this all up of course is the idea that there is no “harm” such cases will be vital to establish as legal fact, there is harm. . .
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Would be interested to see if Mike also pursues the Queen and Prince Philip for circumcising their children.
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Mike isn’t ‘pursuing’ parents for having their sons circumcised; he is taking action against a man who willingly commits savage assaults against baby boys in the knowledge that he is breaking the law.
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he is pursing those doctors who break their Hippocratic oath not those who consent and who can be defended as ignorant.
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Good Luck.
Be prepared for accuations of anti-semitism to go with those of misogyny.
This is going to be very emotionally charged, on one hand the damage caused to children on the other the suppressed guilt of parents who will be very reluctant to accept what they did was not in the best interest of the child.
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Great work. Shows that being a gentleman does not have to mean only being worried about women’s and girls’ well being and completely ignore men and boys, as is sadly the case,most of the time. Well done Mike!
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Nice bit of activism, Mike! People often accuse MRAs of being all talk and no action – well here’s some action.
It’s a great tactic to go after an individual genital mutilator, as Saul Alinsky says in ‘Rules for Radicals’ : ‘Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.’
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You have all the good will and best wishes of all in the MHRM and other groups who support the human rights of baby boys.
And Mike, thank you so much on behalf of baby boys, for putting yourself out there risking everything. You are taking on a very touchy and risky issue and we are all aware of what could go wrong.
You are an example to all of us who sit behind the keyboard!
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wish you the best of luck in this mike.
as you can see you have a lot of support.
I would hope that avfm write a simple article on MGM to refresh everyone’s memory on this horrible practice and then show this action taken by you as an example of action.
This I think would be more productive than a simple link among the list of links in avfm( this in no way is intended disrespect to avfm, the running of and the hard work put into it by all members)
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Would like you to know this has female support as well. I know far to many horror stories of circumcision going wrong ending with little boys having to go through the procedure again (often causing irreversible damage to the urethra). It is a vain practice most parents make due to the stereo type that woman prefer a circumcised penis over the natural penis. Western female babies will never be subjected to genital mutilation simply for sexual preferences. It isn’t fair not is it ethical. Best of luck to you!
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Vik, thank you. We get very little support from women in the UK, but in the US female intactivists are both numerous and vocal. FWIW female babies outside the West aren’t circumcised for male ‘sexual preference’, a feminist myth. Almost whenever and wherever it occurs, FGM is carried out by women, at the behest of women. Why have there been no successful prosecutions under the 1985 FGM Act? Because the feminist-driven criminal justice system has tried to pin FGM on men for 32 years, when the circumcisers are almost all middle-aged and elderly black women.
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I do hope my comment didn’t come across as acquisitory towards men. I am very aware FGM is by the hands of women. The tragedy is many documentaries on the issue try to circle around as if men put women in the position to carry out these horrendous acts. Very similar to foot binding in Chinese culture. Honestly I didn’t know how much blame societies put on men until I had a son. He is 8 and I want him to know that he should never feel wrong for who he is – this has lead me to research Mens’ rights.
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Always so interested, excited, and pleased to learn what you will do next. Also, the icmi conference you helped put on went very well. You are a dedicated servant. Deeply grateful. For this reason, you’ll be getting something from me soon.
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Thanks MGTOW-man, good to see you there.
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I hope this action succeeds. Both MGM and FGM should be outright criminalised. I was shocked to find some close friends of mine did this to their sons, justifying it as wanting them to look like their father. My reaction to that was, what about the mutilation you are inflicting on him, risk of infection and haemorrhage etc, plus he’ll be the odd man out in his peer group. It be appropriate to disseminate information about the risks to new mothers along with the hundred other leaflets they give you at the hospital. If it is for religious purposes, surely once a male is 18 he can do so by making an informed choice and able to giving his own consent? Anyone thinking about it, should be forced to watch a procedure on youtube first.
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