Banning God’s law in the name of the Holy body : The Nordic position on ritual male circumcision

Abstract

The article investigates the legal initiatives regarding ritual male circumcision in the Nordic states. National laws are discussed in relation to human rights according to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and in the European Convention on the Fundamental Rights and Freedom, i.e. right to freedom of religion, the rights and best interests of the child, gender equality, and protection of national minorities in Europe. It is suggested that the principle of the best interests of the child is interpreted in the light of what is looked upon as a "normal" childhood. Normality in the Nordic states vis-à-vis religion and childhood is construed in the light of a long tradition of religious Protestant homogeneity that is presently being challenged due to immigration, in the wake of which a number of legal principles, religious rites, and religiously inspired traditions, including ritual male circumcision, are being re-negotiated at different levels in the civil society and by different actors, all claiming agency for the child.