A controversy surrounding illegal circumcisions within the Jewish community, sparked by Antwerp's dissident rabbi, Moshe Aryed Friedman, has prompted an investigation in Belgium. Now, two other European countries are following suit.
The 54-year-old rabbi Moshe Aryeh Friedman had questioned the medical training of people performing brit mila, the circumcision ritual in Orthodox communities, saying that people who performed these procedures were actually trained as butchers.
According to Friedman, these circumcisions might have led to mutilations and sometimes infections, which pose a great risk to newborns.
Friedman refers in particular to a practice known as "metziztah b'peh", in which blood from the circumcised penis is sucked out by mouth.
A practice that led to deaths in New York because babies became infected with herpes, De Morgen reported.
According to the Flemish Daily, Antwerp public prosecutor's office announced last week that it intends to criminally prosecute two Jewish circumcisers for assault and battery and the illegal practice of medicine.
US Ambassador Bill White has strongly criticised Belgium in a political row with Belgian politicians demanding investigation into the Jewish circumcisions be stopped.
The US envoy believes criminal prosecution puts an end to religious freedom. The Jewish community also took this position.
Chief Rabbi Moshe Friedman, born into the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic community in New York, reportedly pays little attention to controversy. After Antwerp, he has also filed a number of complaints in Vienna and Zurich, De Morgen reported.
"I have information that circumcisions are also being performed in Vienna and Zurich that pose a danger to babies in terms of hygiene and medical follow-up," Friedman confirmed to De Morgen. "I believe that these practices must be investigated and that they must be stopped," he added.
The Zurich public prosecutor's office has confirmed to the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger that Friedman's complaint is currently being investigated.
Whether criminal offences were committed in Vienna or Zurich will reportedly have to be determined by an investigation.
