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Circumcision and law

Laws restricting, regulating, or banning circumcision, some dating back to ancient times, have been enacted in many countries and communities. In modern states, circumcision is generally presumed to be legal, but laws pertaining to assault or child custody have been applied in cases involving circumcision. In the case of non-therapeutic circumcision of children, proponents of laws in favor of the procedure often point to the rights of the parents or practitioners, namely the right of freedom of religion. Those against the procedure point to the boy's right of freedom from religion. In several court cases, judges have pointed to the irreversible nature of the act, the grievous harm to the boy's body, and the right to self-determination, and bodily integrity.

Judaism
There are ancient religious requirements for circumcision. The Hebrew Bible commands Jews to circumcise their male children on the eighth day of life, and to circumcise their male slaves.

Laws which ban circumcision are also ancient. The ancient Greeks prized the foreskin and disapproved of the Jewish custom of circumcision. 1 Maccabees, 1:60–61 states that King Antiochus IV of Syria, the occupying power of Judea in 170 BCE, outlawed circumcision on penalty of death, one of the grievances leading to the Maccabean Revolt.

According to the Historia Augusta, the Roman emperor Hadrian issued a decree which banned circumcision in the empire, and some modern scholars argue that this was a main cause of the Jewish Bar Kokhba revolt of 132 CE. The Roman historian Cassius Dio, however, made no mention of such a law, instead, he blamed the Jewish uprising on Hadrian's decision to rebuild Jerusalem and rename it Aelia Capitolina, a city dedicated to Jupiter.

Antoninus Pius permitted Jews to circumcise their own sons. However, he forbade the circumcision of non-Jewish males who were either foreign-born slaves of Jews and the circumcision of non-Jewish males who were members of Jewish households, in violation of Genesis 17:12. He also banned non-Jewish men from converting to Judaism. Antoninus Pius exempted the Egyptian priesthood from the otherwise universal ban on circumcision.

Constantine the Great made it illegal to circumcise Christian slaves, and punished the owners who allowed it by freeing the Christian from slavery.

Ecclesiastical canon law in Christianity
Circumcision has also played a major role in Christian history and theology. The Council of Jerusalem in the early Christian Church declared that circumcision was not necessary for Christians; covenant theology largely views the Christian sacrament of baptism as fulfilling the Israelite practice of circumcision, both being signs and seals of the covenant of grace. Though mainstream Christian denominations maintain a neutral position on routine circumcision, it is widely practiced in many Christian communities.

Historically, the Lutheran Churches have also not practiced circumcision among their communicants. Currently the Catholic Church maintains a neutral position on the practice of non-religious circumcision. Today, many Christian denominations are neutral about ritual male circumcision, not requiring it for religious observance, but neither forbidding it for cultural or other reasons.

On the other hand, in Oriental Christianity, the Coptic Orthodox Church and Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Eritrean Orthodox Church require that their male members undergo circumcision.

Soviet Union
Before glasnost, according to an article in The Jewish Press, Jewish ritual circumcision was forbidden in the Soviet Union. However, David E. Fishman, professor of Jewish History at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, states that, whereas the heder and yeshiva, the organs of Jewish education, "were banned by virtue of the law separating church and school, and subjected to tough police and administrative actions", circumcision was not proscribed by law or suppressed by executive measures. Jehoshua A. Gilboa writes that while circumcision was not officially or explicitly banned, pressure was exerted to make it difficult. Mohels in particular were concerned that they could be punished for any health issue that might develop, even if it arose some time after the circumcision.

Albania
In 1967, all religion in Communist Albania was banned, along with the practice of circumcision. The practice was driven underground and many boys were secretly circumcised.

Council of Europe
On 1 October 2013, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a non-binding resolution in which they state they are "particularly worried about a category of violation of the physical integrity of children", and included in this category "circumcision of young boys for religious reasons". On 7 October, Israel's president Shimon Peres wrote a personal missive to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, to stop the "ban", arguing: "The Jewish communities across Europe would be greatly afflicted to see their cultural and religious freedom impeded upon by the Council of Europe, an institution devoted to the protection of these very rights." Two days later, Jagland clarified that the resolution was non-binding and that "Nothing in the body of our legally binding standards would lead us to put on equal footing the issue of female genital mutilation and the circumcision of young boys for religious reasons."

European Union
A study commissioned by the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs published in February 2013 stated that "Male circumcision for non-therapeutic reasons appears to be practiced with relative regularity and frequency throughout Europe," and said it was "the only scenario, among the topics discussed in the present chapter, in which the outcome of the balancing between the right to physical integrity and religious freedom is in favour of the latter." The study recommended that "the best interests of children should be paramount, while acknowledging the relevance of this practice for Muslims and Jews. Member States should ensure that circumcision of underage children is performed according to the medical profession's art and under conditions that do not put the health of minors at risk. The introduction of regulations by the Member States in order to set the conditions and the appropriate medical training for those called to perform it is warranted."

2013 Nordic ombudsmen statement
On 30 September 2013, the children's ombudsmen of all five Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden – together with the children's spokesperson from Greenland and representatives of associations of Nordic paediatricians and paediatric surgeons, gathered in Oslo to discuss the issue, and released a joint declaration proposing a ban on non-therapeutic circumcision of male minors:

"Let boys decide for themselves whether or not they want to be circumcised Circumcision without a medical indication on a person unable to provide informed consent conflicts with basic principles of medical ethics, particularly because the operation is irreversible, painful and may cause serious complications. There are no health-related reasons to circumcise young boys in the Nordic countries. Arguments that may argue in favour of circumcision in adult men are of little relevance to children in the Nordic area. Boys can make up their own minds about the operation when they get old enough to provide informed consent.

As ombudsmen for children and experts in children's health we consider circumcision of underage boys without a medical indication to be in conflict with the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, article 12, about children's right to express their views about their own matters, and article 24, pt. 3, which says that children must be protected against traditional rituals that may be harmful to their health.

In 2013, the UN Human Rights Council has urged all states to end operations that compromise the integrity and dignity of children and are prejudicial to the health of both girls and boys. We consider it central that parental rights in this matter do not have precedence over children's right to bodily integrity. What is in children's best interest must always come first, even if this may limit an adult's right to carry out their religious or traditional rituals.

The Nordic ombudsmen for children and experts in children's health therefore want to work towards a situation, where a circumcision can only be performed, if a boy, who has reached the age and level of maturity required to understand necessary medical information, consents to the operation. We wish a respectful dialogue among all parties involved about how to best ensure boys' self determination with respect to circumcision. We also urge our governments to inform about children's rights and health-related risks and consequences of the operation. We ask the Nordic governments to take the necessary steps towards ensuring that boys get the right to decide for themselves whether or not they want to be circumcised."

Modern laws by country
As of February 2018, no European country has a ban on male circumcision.

Whereas child custody regulations have been applied to cases involving circumcision, there seems to be no state which currently unequivocally bans infant male circumcision for non-therapeutic reasons, albeit the legality of such circumcision is disputed in some legislations.

The present table provides a non-exhaustive overview comparing legal restrictions and requirements on non-therapeutic infant circumcision in several countries. Some countries require one or both parents to consent to the operation; some of these (Finland, United Kingdom ) have experienced legal battles between parents when one of them had their son's circumcision carried out or planned without the other's consent. Some countries require the procedure to be performed by or supervised by a qualified physician (or a qualified nurse in Sweden ), and with (local) anaesthesia applied to the boy or man.

Australia
The Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) finds that routine infant circumcision is not warranted in Australia and New Zealand and that, since circumcision involves physical injury, physicians ought to raise and consider with parents and considered the option of leaving circumcision until later, when the boy is old enough to make a decision for himself:

"After reviewing the currently available evidence, the RACP believes that the frequency of diseases modifiable by circumcision, the level of protection offered by circumcision and the complication rates of circumcision do not warrant routine infant circumcision in Australia and New Zealand. ... Since circumcision involves physical risks which are undertaken for the sake of psychosocial benefits or debatable medical benefit to the child, ... The option of leaving circumcision until later, when the boy is old enough to make a decision for himself does need to be raised with parents and considered."

In 1993, a non-binding research paper of the Queensland Law Reform Commission (Circumcision of Male Infants) concluded that "On a strict interpretation of the assault provisions of the Queensland Criminal Code, routine circumcision of a male infant could be regarded as a criminal act," and that doctors who perform circumcision on male infants may be liable to civil claims by that child at a later date. No prosecutions have occurred in Queensland, and circumcisions continue to be performed.

In 1999, a Perth man won A$360,000 in damages after a doctor admitted he botched a circumcision operation at birth which left the man with a badly deformed penis.

In 2002, Queensland police charged a father with grievous bodily harm for having his two sons, then aged nine and five, circumcised without the knowledge and against the wishes of the mother. The mother and father were in a family court dispute. The charges were dropped when the police prosecutor revealed that he did not have all family court paperwork in court and the magistrate refused to grant an adjournment.

Cosmetic circumcision for newborn males is currently banned in all Australian public hospitals, South Australia being the last state to adopt the ban in 2007; the procedure was not forbidden from being performed in private hospitals. In the same year, the Tasmanian President of the Australian Medical Association, Haydn Walters, stated that they would support a call to ban circumcision for non-medical, non-religious reasons. In 2009, the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute released its Issues Paper investigating the law relating to male circumcision in Tasmania, it "highlights the uncertainty in relation to whether doctors can legally perform circumcision on infant males".

The Tasmania Law Reform Institute released its recommendations for reform of Tasmanian law relative to male circumcision on 21 August 2012. The report makes fourteen recommendations for reform of Tasmanian law relative to male circumcision.

Belgium
The Belgian Advisory Committee on Bioethics finds that circumcision is a radical operation, and that physical integrity of the child takes precedence over parents' belief systems.

In 2012, Le Soir reported a 21% increase in the amount of circumcisions in Belgium from 2006 and 2011. In the previous 25 years, one in three Belgian-born boys had allegedly been circumcised. A questionnaire to hospitals in Wallonia and Brussels showed that about 80 to 90% of the procedures had religious or cultural motives. The Ministry of Health stressed the importance of safe circumstances, physicians warned that "no surgical procedure is without risk" and that circumcision was "not a necessary procedure".

In 2017, it was estimated that about 15% of Belgian men were circumcised. The incidence has been gradually rising: in 2002, about 17,800 boys or men underwent circumcision, which increased to almost 26,200 in 2016. The expenses of undergoing circumcision are covered by the National Institute for Disease and Disability Insurance (RIZIV/INAMI), costing about 2.7 million euros in 2016. After inquiries were submitted to the Belgian Bioethics Advisory Committee in early 2014, an ethics commission was set up to review the morality of covering the costs of medically unnecessary surgery through taxpayer money, especially considering that many taxpayers regard the practice as immoral. By July 2017, the commission reportedly reached consensus on discontinuing the financial coverage of non-medical circumcision, but was still debating whether to advise the government to institute a total ban of the practice. The commission's final (non-binding) recommendation, presented on 19 September 2017, was to cease public funding for non-medical circumcision, and to not circumcise anyone underage until they can consent or reject the procedure after being properly informed. This was in line with the 1990 Convention on the Rights of the Child, and mirrors the 2013 non-binding Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's resolution against underage non-therapeutic circumcision. However, Health Minister Maggie De Block rejected the commission's advice, arguing the RIZIV "cannot know whether there is a medical motive or not" when parents request a circumcision, and when they are denied a professional procedure, chances are parents will have a non-expert perform it, leading to worse results for the children. The Health Minister's response was received with mixed reactions.

Canada
The Canadian Paediatric Society does not recommend routine circumcision, finding that medical necessity has not been clearly established, and as such, that it should be deferred until the individual concerned is able to make his own choices.

According to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia:

"To date, the legality of infant male circumcision has not been tested in the Courts. It is thus assumed to be legal if it is performed competently, in the child's best interest, and after valid consent has been obtained.

At all times the physician must perform the procedure with competence and at all times, the parent and physician must act in the best interests of the child. Signed parental consent for any treatment is assumed to be valid if the parent understands the nature of the procedure and its associated risks and benefits. However, proxy consent by parents is now being questioned. Many believe it should be limited to consent for diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions, and that it is not relevant for non-therapeutic procedures.'"

Denmark
Circumcision is legal in Denmark, and each year 1,000 to 2,000 boys are circumcised for non-medical reasons, the Danish Health Authority estimated in 2013, with most circumcisions being performed on Muslim or Jewish boys in private clinics or private homes. For boys below the age of 15, circumcision requires consent from the parents, while the boy can consent when he is 15 years or older. Circumcision is classified as an operation and reserved for doctors, though the responsible doctor can delegate the actual operation to non-medical person, as long as the doctor is present. The operation requires "sufficient pain relief (analgesic) and sedation (Anesthesia)" The doctor is responsible for having the necessary qualifications (both for the operation and the pain relief) and for being informed about the newest scientific developments in the area.

The current guidelines for non-medical circumcision are from 2013, and, a committee under the Danish Patient Health Authority are in the process of updating them. In August 2020, the Danish Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine withdrew from the committee, because they disagreed with the Authority's opinion that local anaesthesia was sufficient, instead saying the scientific literature showed that general anaesthesia was necessary. Other professional organizations followed them, and according to DR, only the Authority and two private clinics that perform circumcisions remain in the committee.

The Danish population overwhelmingly support a ban on non-medical circumcision of boys below the age of 18. A 2020 survey measured the support at 86%, while surveys in 2018, 2016 and 2014 measured the support at 83%, 87% and 74%, respectively  In 2018, a citizen's initiative calling for such a ban reached the threshold of 50.000 signatures to be put forward in the Folketing. It was subsequently found compliant with the Danish Constitution, in particularly §67 on religious freedom. The Danish Medical Association believes boys should decide for themselves after they turn 18 years old, but does not call for a ban. Politicians are hesitant in supporting a ban, with protection of religious freedom, in particular the Jewish practice of circumcision, and potential foreign policy and national security ramifications mentioned as some of the reasons. , the Social Democrats and Venstre, who together hold a majority in the Folketing, oppose a ban, while the Danish People's Party, the Socialist People's Party, Red-Green Alliance, The Alternative, The New Right and Liberal Alliance favour a ban. The Conservative and the Social Liberal Party have no official opinion on the question.

 * In favour of a ban
 * Danish People's Party
 * Socialist People's Party
 * Red-Green Alliance
 * The Alternative
 * The New Right
 * Liberal Alliance

 * Against a ban
 * Social Democrats
 * Venstre

 * Neutral
 * Conservative People's Party
 * Social Liberal Party

With a two-thirds majority against, the Folketing voted against a ban on circumcision in May 2021.

Finland
The Finnish Ombudsman for Equality finds that circumcising young boys without a medical reason is legally highly questionable, The Finnish Supreme Court found that non-therapeutic circumcision of boys is assault, and the Finnish Ombudsman for Children proposed that Finland should ban non-therapeutic circumcision of young boys: "The Deputy Ombudsman took the view that circumcising young boys, who are unable to give their consent, without a medical reason is highly questionable from a legal standpoint. … On 31 March 2016, the Supreme Court adopted two decisions that complement a previous precedent in which the Court found that the non-medical circumcision of boys constitutes an assault offence but is not punishable when it is considered to be in the best interests of the child. In 2015, the Finnish Ombudsman for Children Tuomas Kurttila proposed that Finland should enact an act prohibiting the non-medical circumcision of young boys."

In August 2006, a Finnish court ruled that the circumcision of a four-year-old boy arranged by his mother, who is Muslim, to be an illegal assault. The boy's father, who had not been consulted, reported the incident to the police. A local prosecutor stated that the prohibition of circumcision is not gender-specific in Finnish law. A lawyer for the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health stated that there is neither legislation nor prohibition on male circumcision, and that "the operations have been performed on the basis of common law." The case was appealed and in October 2008 the Finnish Supreme Court ruled that the circumcision, "carried out for religious and social reasons and in a medical manner, did not have the earmarks of a criminal offence. It pointed out in its ruling that the circumcision of Muslim boys is an established tradition and an integral part of the identity of Muslim men". In 2008, the Finnish government was reported to be considering a new law to legalise circumcision if the practitioner is a doctor and if the child consents. In December 2011, Helsinki District Court said that the Supreme Court's decision does not mean that circumcision is legal for any non-medical reasons. The court referred to the Convention on Human rights and Biomedicine of the Council of Europe, which was ratified in Finland in 2010.

In February 2010, a Jewish couple were fined for causing bodily harm to their then infant son who was circumcised in 2008 by a mohel brought in from the UK. Normal procedure for persons of Jewish faith in Finland is to have a locally certified mohel who works in Finnish healthcare perform the operation. In the 2008 case, the infant was not anesthetized and developed complications that required immediate hospital care. The parents were ordered to pay 1500 euros in damages to their child.

In November 2020, the Finnish Parliament passed a new law on female genital mutilation. An earlier version of the draft law could also have criminalised nonmedical infant circumcision, but due to intense lobbying by several Islamic and Jewish organisations including the Central Council of Finnish Jewish Communities, Milah UK, and the European Jewish Congress, the wording was changed and instead, the law passed in Parliament now states that the issue of circumcision of boys should be "clarified" in the future.

 * In favour of a ban
 * Social Democratic Party of Finland
 * Finns Party
 * Green League
 * Finnish Ombudsman for Children
 * Finnish Ombudsman for Equality

 * Against a ban
 * Christian Democrats
 * Central Council of Finnish Jewish Communities

Germany
The German Association of Pediatricians (BVKJ) finds no medical reason for non-therapeutic circumcision and that the AAP (2012) recommendation scientifically unsustainable, and that boys should have the same constitutional legal right to physical integrity as girls:

"From a medical point of view, there is no reason to remove the intact foreskin of underage and non-consenting boys. ... The tip of the foreskin is richly supplied with blood by important vascular structures. The foreskin serves as a connecting channel for numerous important veins. Circumcision can contribute to erectile dysfunction by destroying these blood lines. Their removal can, as the accounts of many sufferers show, lead to considerable restrictions on the sexual experience and mental stress. The frequently cited AAP opinion (DOI: 10.1542 / peds.2012-1989 Pediatrics 'originally published online 27 Aug. 2012) contradicts earlier statements by the same organization without being able to invoke new research findings. This AAP opinion is now considered scientifically unsustainable by almost all other pediatric societies and associations in the world. ... The WHO recommendation on prophylactic circumcision also applies only to sexually mature sexually active men in low-hygiene countries and cannot be used as a basis for the prophylactic circumcision underage boys. ... Worldwide, no medical professional society, not even the AAP, sees such a significant advantage in the general circumcision of young boys that it generally recommends them. ... Religious regulations must not influence doctors in their care for their patients - and underage children deserve our very special care here. According to our sense of justice, boys have the same constitutional legal right to physical integrity as girls; they must not be disadvantaged because of their gender (Article 3 of the Basic Law). Parental rights and religious freedom end where the physical integrity of a child who is under the age of consent is not affected (Article 2 of the Basic Law) without a clear medical indication."

In October 2006, a Turkish national who performed ritual circumcisions on seven boys was convicted of causing dangerous bodily harm by the state court in Düsseldorf.

In September 2007, a Frankfurt am Main appeals court found that the circumcision of an 11-year-old boy without his approval was an unlawful personal injury. The boy, whose parents were divorced, was visiting his Muslim father during a vacation when his father forced him to be ritually circumcised. The boy had planned to sue his father for €10,000.

In May 2012, the Cologne regional appellate court ruled that religious circumcision of male children amounts to bodily injury, and is a criminal offense in the area under its jurisdiction. The decision based on the article "Criminal Relevance of Circumcising Boys. A Contribution to the Limitation of Consent in Cases of Care for the Person of the Child" published by Holm Putzke, a German law professor at the University of Passau. The court arrived at its judgment by application of the human rights provisions of the Basic Law, a section of the Civil Code, and some sections of the Criminal Code to non-therapeutic circumcision of male children. Some observers said it could set a legal precedent that criminalizes the practice. Jewish and Muslim groups were outraged by the ruling, viewing it as trampling on freedom of religion.

The German ambassador to Israel, Andreas Michaelis, told Israeli lawmakers that Germany was working to resolve the issue and that it does not apply at a national level, but instead only to the local jurisdiction of the court in Cologne. The Council of the Coordination of Muslims in Germany condemned the ruling, stating that it is "a serious attack on religious freedom". Ali Kizilkaya, a spokesman of the council, stated that, "The ruling does not take everything into account, religious practice concerning circumcision of young Muslims and Jews has been carried out over the millennia on a global level." The Roman Catholic archbishop of Aachen, Heinrich Mussinghoff, said that the ruling was "very surprising", and the contradiction between "basic rights on freedom of religion and the well-being of the child brought up by the judges is not convincing in this very case". Hans Ulrich Anke, the head of the Protestant Church in Germany, said the ruling should be appealed since it did not "sufficiently" consider the religious significance of the rite. A spokesman, Steffen Seibert, for German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that Jewish and Muslim communities will be free to practice circumcision responsibly, and the government would find a way around the local ban in Cologne. The spokesman stated "For everyone in the government it is absolutely clear that we want to have Jewish and Muslim religious life in Germany. Circumcision carried out in a responsible manner must be possible in this country without punishment."

In July 2012, a group of rabbis, imams, and others said that they view the ruling against circumcision "an affront on our basic religious and human rights". The joint statement was signed by leaders of groups including Germany's Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs, the Islamic Center Brussels, the Rabbinical Centre of Europe, the European Jewish Parliament and the European Jewish Association, who met with members of European Parliament from Germany, Finland, Belgium, Italy, and Poland. European rabbis, who urged Jews to continue circumcision, planned further talks with Muslim and Christian leaders to determine how they can oppose the ban together. The Jewish Hospital of Berlin suspended the practice of male circumcision. On 19 July 2012, a joint resolution of the CDU/CSU, SPD and FDP factions in the Bundestag requesting the executive branch to draft a law permitting circumcision of boys to be performed without unnecessary pain in accordance with best medical practice carried with a broad majority.

The New York Times reported that the German Medical Association "condemned the ruling for potentially putting children at risk by taking the procedure out of the hands of doctors, but it also warned surgeons note to perform circumcisions for religious reasons until legal clarity was established". The ruling was supported by Deutsche Kinderhilfe, a German child rights organization, which asked for a two-year moratorium to discuss the issue and pointed out that religious circumcision may contravene the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 24.3: "States Parties shall take all effective and appropriate measures with a view to abolishing traditional practices prejudicial to the health of children.").

The German Academy for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine (Deutsche Akademie für Kinder- und Jugendmedizin e.V., DAKJ), the German Association for Pediatric Surgery (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kinderchirurgie, DGKCH) and the Professional Association of Pediatric and Adolescent Physicians (Berufsverband der Kinder- und Jugendärzte) took a firm stand against non-medical routine infant circumcision.

In July, in Berlin, a criminal complaint was lodged against Rabbi Yitshak Ehrenberg for "causing bodily harm" by performing religious circumcision, and for vocal support of the continuation of the practice. In September, the prosecutors dismissed the complaint, concluding that "there is no proof to establish that the rabbi's conduct met the 'condition of a criminal' violation".

In September, Reuters reported "Berlin's senate said doctors could legally circumcise infant boys for religious reasons in its region, given certain conditions."

On 12 December 2012, following a series of hearings and consultations, the Bundestag adopted the proposed law explicitly permitting non-therapeutic circumcision to be performed under certain conditions; it is now §1631(d) in the German Civil Code. The vote tally was 434 ayes, 100 noes, and 46 abstentions. Following approval by the Bundesrat and signing by the Bundespräsident, the new law became effective on 28 December 2012 a day after its publication in the Federal Gazette.

Iceland
In May 2005, Iceland amended its General Penal Code to criminalise female genital mutilation

"Any person who, in an assault, causes physical injury or damage to the health of a girl child or woman by removing her sexual organs, partly or in their entirety, shall be imprisoned for up to 6 years. If the assault results in serious physical injury or health damage, or in death, or if it is considered particularly reprehensible due to the method used, punishment for the offence shall take the form of up to 16 years' imprisonment"

In February 2018, the Progressive Party proposed a bill that would change the words "girl child" to "child" and "her sexual organs" to "[their] sexual organs", thereby making Iceland the first European country to ban male circumcision for non-medical reasons. The bill was ultimately put on hold later that year following pressure from the United States, Israel, and various lobbyist groups.

 * In favour of the proposed ban (March 2018)
 * Progressive Party
 * People's Party
 * Left-Green Movement
 * Pirate Party
 * Jews Against Circumcision

 * Against the proposed ban (March 2018)
 * European Jewish Congress
 * Islamic Cultural Centre of Iceland
 * Catholic Church
 * Anti-Defamation League

Ireland
In October 2005 a Nigerian man was cleared of a charge of reckless endangerment over the death of a baby from hemorrhage and shock after he had circumcised the child. The judge directed the jury not to "bring what he called their white western values to bear when they were deciding this case" and effectively imposed a not guilty verdict on the jury. After deliberating for an hour and a half they found the defendant not guilty.

Israel
In Israel, Jewish circumcision is entirely legal. The circumcision rate is very high in Israel, although some limited data suggests the practice is slowly declining. According to an online survey by the parents' portal Mamy in 2006, the rate was 95%, while earlier estimates put it at 98–99%. Ben Shalem, an organisation dedicated to the abolition of circumcision, petitioned the Supreme Court in 1999 on the grounds that circumcision violated human dignity, children's rights and criminal law. The petition was rejected. In 2013, a Rabbinical court in Israel ordered a mother in the midst of divorce proceedings to circumcise her son in accordance with the father's wishes, or pay a fine of 500 Israeli Shekel for every day that the child is not circumcised. She appealed against the Rabbinical court ruling and the High Court ruled in her favour stating, among other considerations, the basic right of freedom from religion.

Netherlands
The Royal Dutch Medical Association (KNMG) finds non-therapeutic circumcision of male minors to be in conflict with children's right to autonomy and physical integrity, and that there are good reasons for its legal prohibition, as exists for female genital mutilation: "* There is no convincing evidence that circumcision is useful or necessary in terms of prevention or hygiene. Partly in the light of the complications which can arise during or after circumcision, circumcision is not justifiable except on medical/therapeutic grounds. Insofar as there are medical benefits, such as a possibly reduced risk of HIV infection, it is reasonable to put off circumcision until the age at which such a risk is relevant and the boy himself can decide about the intervention, or can opt for any available alternatives.
 * Contrary to what is often thought, circumcision entails the risk of medical and psychological complications. The most common complications are bleeding, infections, meatus stenosis (narrowing of the urethra) and panic attacks. Partial or complete penis amputations as a result of complications following circumcisions have also been reported, as have psychological problems as a result of the circumcision.
 * Non-therapeutic circumcision of male minors is contrary to the rule that minors may only be exposed to medical treatments if illness or abnormalities are present, or if it can be convincingly demonstrated that the medical intervention is in the interest of the child, as in the case of vaccinations.
 * Non-therapeutic circumcision of male minors conflicts with the child's right to autonomy and physical integrity.
 * There are good reasons for a legal prohibition of non-therapeutic circumcision of male minors, as exists for female genital mutilation."

In May 2008 a father who had his two sons, aged 3 and 6, circumcised against the will of their mother was found not guilty of abuse as the circumcision was performed by a physician and due to the court's restraint in setting a legal precedent; instead he was given a 6-week suspended jail sentence for taking the boys away from their mother against her will.

The parquet of the Supreme Court of the Netherlands made an elaborate statement on the legal status of circumcision on 5 July 2011 in the course of a criminal case. First, the parquet notes that there is no law that specifically prohibits the circumcision of boys, nor that the practice falls under the more general crime of (zware) mishandeling ('(grave) assault'). "Genital mutilation of girls in any case undoubtedly falls under (zware) mishandeling (Art. 300–303 Dutch Criminal Code). Whereas most forms of genital cutting of girls are generally marked as genital mutilation, a similar communis opinio regarding genital cutting of boys does not yet exist so far." The Supreme Court acknowledged that society's attitudes on genital cutting of boys had been gradually shifting over the course of years, and that "the increasing concern [in the medical world] about the harm and the risk of complications during a circumcision is indeed relevant", but that overall there were not enough reasons yet to proceed to criminalisation. Neither could intentional infliction of grave bodily harm (Art. 82 Dutch Criminal Code) be applied to the normal circumstances of a competently and hygienically performed circumcision in a clinic. And because young children are incapable of exercising the right to self-determination, parents ought to do this on their behalf. They can both request a circumcision to be performed, as well as consent to it being performed, on the grounds of their parental authority. However, it is important that both parents consent to the procedure.

 * In favour of a ban
 * Christian Union, political party, on the basis of Article 11 of the Constitution concerning bodily integrity (from 2006 to 2011 )
 * Royal Dutch Medical Association (KNMG), federation of physicians (since 2010)
 * Youth Organisation Freedom and Democracy, youth wing People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) (since 2014)
 * Young Democrats, youth wing Democrats 66 (D66) (since 2017, favours a gradual increase of the minimum age for circumcision)
 * PINK!, youth wing Party for the Animals (PvdD) (since 2018)

 * Against a ban
 * Council of Public Health and Care (RVZ), medical advisory committee for parliament and government (since 2010)
 * Rabbi Herman Loonstein, president of Federative Jewish Netherlands
 * Christian Union, political party, on the basis of Article 6 of the Constitution concerning freedom of religion (since 2011 )

Norway
The Norwegian Ombudsman for Children (Barneombudet) opposes circumcising children, and stated on 29 September 2013 that it is right to wait until children are old enough to decide for themselves: "The Ombudsman for Children is opposed to having children circumcised when they are so small that they are unable to express their views on it. Being circumcised is something that cannot be changed. Then we think it is right to wait until the children are old enough to decide for themselves."

In June 2012, the centre-right Centre Party proposed a ban on circumcision on males under eighteen, after an Oslo infant died in May following a circumcision.

A bill on ritual circumcision of boys was passed (against two votes) in the Norwegian Parliament in June 2014, with the new law going into effect on 1 January 2015. This law explicitly allows Jews to practice brit milah and obligates the Norwegian Health Care regions to offer the Muslim minority a safe and affordable procedure. Local anaesthesia needs to be applied and a licensed physician needs to be present at the circumcision, which hospitals started to perform in March 2015.

In May 2017, the right-wing Progress Party proposed to ban circumcision for males under sixteen.

 * In favour of a ban
 * Centre Party (under 18, since 2012)
 * Progress Party (under 16, since 2017)
 * Norwegian Ombudsman for Children

South Africa
The Children's Act 2005 makes the circumcision of male children under 16 unlawful except for religious or medical reasons. In the Eastern Cape province the Application of Health Standards in Traditional Circumcision Act, 2001, regulates traditional circumcision, which causes the death or mutilation of many youths by traditional surgeons each year. Among other provisions, the minimum age for circumcision is age 18.

In 2004, a 22-year-old Rastafarian convert was forcibly circumcised by a group of Xhosa tribal elders and relatives. When he first fled, two police returned him to those who had circumcised him. In another case, a medically circumcised Xhosa man was forcibly recircumcised by his father and community leaders. He laid a charge of unfair discrimination on the grounds of his religious beliefs, seeking an apology from his father and the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa. According to South African newspapers, the subsequent trial became "a landmark case around forced circumcision". In October 2009, the Eastern Cape High Court at Bhisho (sitting as an Equality Court) clarified that circumcision is unlawful unless done with the full consent of the initiate.

Slovenia
The Slovenian Human Rights Ombudsman found in February 2012, after consulting various relevant expert bodies and studying relevant constitutional and legal stipulations, that circumcision for non-medical reasons is a violation of children's rights, that ritual circumcision for religious reasons is unacceptable in Slovenia for both legal and ethical reasons and should not be performed by doctors:

"We asked the Higher Academic College for Surgery for professional doctrine in this area (...). The College did not answer all our questions, but sent us the conclusion that circumcision of boys for non-medical reasons is not medically justified.

The Medical Ethics Commission of the Republic of Slovenia sent us a longer response, from which we will summarise its principled opinion, 'that ritual circumcision of boys for religious reasons is unacceptable in our country for legal and ethical reasons, and doctors should not perform it'. In addition to the unacceptability of circumcision from an ethical point of view, the Commission also emphasises that it is also unacceptable that an already performed procedure is falsely shown as medically indicated in the medical documentation.

We asked the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia for information on the payment for circumcision (...) which, according to the institute, is EUR 34.88 per treatment. If the intervention is not medically indicated, the service is not covered by health insurance and must be paid for by the patient or their representatives. (...)

It is clear from Article 56 (special protection of children) and Article 35 (inviolability of physical and mental integrity of everyone) of the Slovenian Constitution that any interference with the physical integrity of the child is limited, and can only be justified by medical reasons. (...) However, if the circumcision of a child is not medically indicated, but is only the result of the beliefs of its parents (religious or otherwise), such an intervention has no legal basis. (...) The Patient's Rights Act stipulates that, as a rule, children have the capacity to consent after the age of 15, unless the doctor assesses that they are not capable of doing so based on their maturity. By law, a child under the age of 15 is generally not capable of giving consent, and even in these cases the doctor can assess that it is capable of doing so. The law specifically stipulates that the child's opinion regarding treatment is taken into account to the greatest extent possible, if it is able to express the opinion and if it understands its meaning and consequences.

(...) While parents have some rights to conform their children's education to their religious and ethical beliefs (as long as these do not violate the rights of the children themselves) under Article 41.3 of the Constitution, in our view, the guidelines on religious education do not include the right of parents to decide to interfere with their child's body solely because of their religious beliefs. Therefore, we believe that circumcision for non-medical reasons is not admissible and represents an illegal intervention in the child's body, thereby violating its rights."

Sweden
In 2001, the Parliament of Sweden enacted a law allowing only persons certified by the National Board of Health to circumcise infants. It requires a medical doctor or an anesthesia nurse to accompany the circumciser and for anaesthetic to be applied beforehand. After the first two months of life circumcisions can only be performed by a physician. The stated purpose of the law was to increase the safety of the procedure.

Swedish Jews and Muslims objected to the law, and in 2001, the World Jewish Congress called it "the first legal restriction on Jewish religious practice in Europe since the Nazi era". The requirement for an anaesthetic to be administered by a medical professional is a major issue, and the low degree of availability of certified professionals willing to conduct circumcision has also been subject to criticism. According to a survey, two out of three paediatric surgeons said they refuse to perform non-therapeutic circumcision, and less than half of all county councils offer it in their hospitals. However, in 2006, the U.S. State Department stated, in a report on Sweden, that most Jewish mohels had been certified under the law and 3000 Muslim and 40–50 Jewish boys were circumcised each year. An estimated 2000 of these are performed by persons who are neither physicians nor have officially recognised certification.

The Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare reviewed the law in 2005 and recommended that it be maintained, but found that the law had failed with regard to the intended consequence of increasing the safety of circumcisions. A later report by the Board criticised the low level of availability of legal circumcisions, partly due to reluctance among health professionals. To remedy this, the report suggested a new law obliging all county councils to offer non-therapeutic circumcision in their hospitals, but this was later abandoned in favour of a non-binding recommendation.

In January 2014, the Swedish Medical Association (SLF) found no known medical benefits to circumcision of children, and thus strong reasons to wait until the boy is old and mature enough (12 or 13 years old) to give informed consent, aiming at ceasing all non-medically justified circumcision without prior consent:

"The issue of circumcision of boys has long been debated both in Sweden and in other countries. The Ethics and Responsibility Council (EAR) believes that the goal is to cease non-medically justified circumcision without prior consent. There are no known medical benefits to the [circumcision] intervention in children. Even if the procedure is performed within the healthcare system, there is, however, a risk of serious complications. Therefore, there are strong reasons to wait for the intervention until the person who is the subject of the measure has reached such age and maturity that he can give informed consent. (...)"

In October 2018, the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats party submitted a draft motion to parliament calling for a ban. At the annual conference of the Centre Party in September 2019, 314 to 166 commissioners voted in favor of prohibiting boys' circumcision. Several Jewish and Islamic organisations voiced their opposition to a potential ban. The Left Party has also expressed support for a prohibition on circumcising boys before the age of 18; other parties have so far not backed a potential ban, though the Green Party found the practice "problematic".

 * In favour of a ban
 * Sweden Democrats
 * Left Party
 * Swedish Ombudsman for Children
 * Swedish Medical Association

 * Against a ban
 * Christian Democrats
 * Liberals
 * Moderate Party
 * Swedish Social Democratic Party
 * Green Party (does find circumcision "problematic")

Switzerland
According to a July 2012 survey by 20 Minuten involving 8,000 participants, 64% of the Swiss population wanted religious circumcision to be banned. 67% of men and 56% of women were in favour. 93% of Muslim respondents and 75% of Jewish respondents opposed a ban. Over 25% of male respondents were themselves circumcised; 96% of Muslim men and 89% of Jewish men in the survey said they were circumcised, while 20% of circumcised men belonged to neither religion. Almost a third of circumcised men favoured a ban, with 12% wishing in hindsight that they had not been circumcised.

United Kingdom
Male circumcision has traditionally been presumed to be legal under British law, however some authors have argued that there is no solid foundation for this view in English law.

While legal, the British Medical Association finds it ethically unacceptable to circumcise a child or young person, either with or without competence, who refuses the procedure, irrespective of the parents' wishes, and that parental preference alone does not constitute sufficient grounds for performing NTMC on a child unable to express his own view:

"The BMA considers that the evidence concerning health benefit from NTMC (non-therapeutic male circumcision) is insufficient for this alone to be a justification for boys undergoing circumcision. In addition, some of the anticipated health benefits of male circumcision can be realised by other means – for example, condom use. … There are clearly risks inherent in any surgical procedure: for example, pain, bleeding, surgical mishap and complications of anaesthesia. With NTMC there are associated medical and psychological risks … The BMA cannot envisage a situation in which it is ethically acceptable to circumcise a child or young person, either with or without competence, who refuses the procedure, irrespective of the parents' wishes. … Parental preference alone does not constitute sufficient grounds for performing NTMC on a child unable to express his own view. … Furthermore, the harm of a person not having the opportunity to choose not to be circumcised or choose not to follow the traditions of his parents must also be taken into account, together with the damage that can be done to the individual's relationship with his parents and the medical profession, if he feels harmed by an irreversible non-therapeutic procedure."

The passage of the Human Rights Act 1998 has led to some speculation that the lawfulness of the circumcision of male children is unclear.

One 1999 case, Re "J" (child's religious upbringing and circumcision) said that circumcision in Britain required the consent of all those with parental responsibility (however this comment was not part of the reason for the judgement and therefore is not legally binding), or the permission of the court, acting for the best interests of the child, and issued an order prohibiting the circumcision of a male child of a non-practicing Muslim father and non-practicing Christian mother with custody. The reasoning included evidence that circumcision carried some medical risk; that the operation would be likely to weaken the relationship of the child with his mother, who strongly objected to circumcision without medical necessity; that the child may be subject to ridicule by his peers as the odd one out and that the operation might irreversibly reduce sexual pleasure, by permanently removing some sensory nerves, even though cosmetic foreskin restoration might be possible. The court did not rule out circumcision against the consent of one parent. It cited a hypothetical case of a Jewish mother and an agnostic father with a number of sons, all of whom, by agreement, had been circumcised as infants in accordance with Jewish laws; the parents then have another son who is born after they have separated; the mother wishes him to be circumcised like his brothers; the father for no good reason, refuses his agreement. In such a case, a decision in favor of circumcision was said to be likely.

In 2001 the General Medical Council had found a doctor who had botched circumcision operations guilty of abusing his professional position and that he had acted "inappropriately and irresponsibly", and struck him off the register. A doctor who had referred patients to him, and who had pressured a mother into agreeing to the surgery, was also condemned. He was put on an 18-month period of review and retraining, and was allowed to resume unrestricted practice as a doctor in March 2003, after a committee found that he had complied with conditions it placed on him. According to the Northern Echo, he "told the committee he has now changed his approach to circumcision referrals, accepting that most cases can be treated without the need for surgery".

Fox and Thomson (2005) argue that consent cannot be given for non-therapeutic circumcision. They say there is "no compelling legal authority for the common view that circumcision is lawful".

In 2005 a Muslim man had his son circumcised against the wishes of the child's mother who was the custodial parent.

In 2009 it was reported that a 20-year-old man whose father had him ritually circumcised as a baby is preparing to sue the doctor who circumcised him. This is believed to be the first time a person who was circumcised as an infant has made a claim in the UK. The case is expected to be heard in 2010.

In a 2015 case regarding female circumcision, a judge concluded that non-therapeutic circumcision of male children is a "significant harm". In 2016, the Family Court in Exeter ruled that a Muslim father could not have his two sons (aged 6 and 4) circumcised after their mother disagreed. Mrs Justice Roberts declared that the boys should first grow old enough "to the point where each of the boys themselves will make their individual choices once they have the maturity and insight to appreciate the consequences and longer-term effects of the decisions which they reach".

Nottingham case
In June 2017, Nottinghamshire Police arrested three people on suspicion of "conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm". The alleged victim was purportedly circumcised while in its Muslim father's care at his grandparents' in July 2013 without the consent of his mother (a non-religious white British woman who conceived the child after a casual affair with the man, whom she had separated from after the incident). The mother first contacted social services and eventually the police in November 2014. The police initially dismissed the complaint, but after the mother got help from the anti-circumcision group Men Do Complain and leading human rights lawyer Saimo Chahal QC, they reopened the case, and ended up arresting three suspects involved. In November 2017, the Crown Prosecution Service explained to the mother in a letter they were not going to prosecute the doctor, who claimed he was unaware of the mother's non-consent. However, Chahal appealed this decision, which she said "lacks any semblance of a considered and reasoned decision and is flawed and irrational", and threatened to bring the case to court. The by then 29-year-old mother finally sued the doctor in April 2018. Niall McCrae, mental health expert from King's College London, argued that this case could mean "the end of ritual male circumcision in the UK", drawing comparisons with earlier rulings against female genital mutilation.

United States
Circumcision of adults who grant personal informed consent for the surgical operation is legal.

In the United States, non-therapeutic circumcision of male children has long been assumed to be lawful in every jurisdiction provided that one parent grants surrogate informed consent. Adler (2013) has recently challenged the validity of this assumption. As with every country, doctors who circumcise children must take care that all applicable rules regarding informed consent and safety are satisfied.

While anti-circumcision groups have occasionally proposed legislation banning non-therapeutic child circumcision, it has not been supported in any legislature. After a failed attempt to adopt a local ordinance banning circumcision on a San Francisco ballot, the state of California enacted in October 2011 a law protecting circumcision from local attempts to ban the practice.

In 2012, New York City required those performing metzitzah b'peh, the oral suction of the open circumcision wound required by Hasidim, to obey stringent consent requirements, including documentation. Agudath Israel of America and other Jewish groups have planned to sue the city in response.

Disputes between parents

Occasionally the courts are asked to make a ruling when parents cannot agree on whether or not to circumcise a child.

In January 2001 a dispute between divorcing parents in New Jersey was resolved when the mother, who sought to have the boy circumcised withdrew her request. The boy had experienced two instances of foreskin inflammation and she wanted to have him circumcised. The father, who had experienced a traumatic circumcision as a child, objected and they turned to the courts for a decision. The Medical Society of New Jersey and the Urological Society of New Jersey both opposed any court ordered medical treatment. As the parties came to an agreement, no precedent was set. In June 2001 a Nevada court settled a dispute over circumcision between two parents but put a strict gag order on the terms of the settlement. In July 2001 a dispute between parents in Kansas over circumcision was resolved when the mother's request to have the infant circumcised was withdrawn. In this case the father opposed circumcision while the mother asserted that not circumcising the child was against her religious beliefs. (The woman's pastor had stated that circumcision was "important" but was not necessary for salvation.) On 24 July 2001 the parents reached agreement that the infant would not be circumcised.

On 14 July 2004 a mother appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court to prevent the circumcision of her son after a county court and the Court of Appeals had denied her a writ of prohibition. However, in early August 2004, before the Supreme Court had given its ruling, the father, who had custody of the boy, had him circumcised.

In October 2006 a judge in Chicago granted an injunction blocking the circumcision of a 9-year-old boy. In granting the injunction the judge stated that "the boy could decide for himself whether to be circumcised when he turns 18."

In November 2007, the Oregon Supreme Court heard arguments from a divorced Oregon couple over the circumcision of their son. The father wanted his son, who turned 13 on 2 March 2008, to be circumcised in accordance with the father's religious views; the child's mother opposes the procedure. The parents dispute whether the boy is in favor of the procedure. A group opposed to circumcision filed briefs in support of the mother's position, while some Jewish groups filed a brief in support of the father. On 25 January 2008, the Court returned the case to the trial court with instructions to determine whether the child agrees or objects to the proposed circumcision. The father appealed to the US Supreme Court to allow him to have his son circumcised but his appeal was rejected. The case then returned to the trial court. When the trial court interviewed the couple's son, now 14 years old, the boy stated that he did not want to be circumcised. This also provided the necessary circumstances to allow the boy to change residence to live with his mother. The boy was not circumcised.

Other disputes

In September 2004 the North Dakota Supreme Court rejected a mother's attempt to prosecute her doctor for circumcising her child without fully informing her of the consequences of the procedure. The judge and jury found that the plaintiffs were adequately informed of possible complications, and the jury further found that it is not incumbent on the doctors to describe every "insignificant" risk.

In March 2009 a Fulton County, GA, State Court jury awarded $2.3 million in damages to a 4-year-old boy and his mother for a botched circumcision in which too much tissue was removed causing permanent disfigurement.

In August 2010 an eight-day-old boy was circumcised in a Florida hospital against the stated wishes of the parents. The hospital admitted that the boy was circumcised by mistake; the mother has sued the hospital and the doctor involved in the case.

title: Circumcision and law


text:
Called to Common Mission

Called to Common Mission (CCM) is an agreement between The Episcopal Church (ECUSA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in the United States, establishing full communion between them. It was ratified by the ELCA in 1999, the ECUSA in 2000, after the narrow failure of a previous agreement. Its principal author on the Episcopal side was theological professor J. Robert Wright. Under the agreement, they recognize the validity of each other's baptisms and ordinations. The agreement provided that the ELCA would accept the historical episcopate and the "threefold ministry" of bishop - priest (or pastor) - deacon with respect to ministers of communicant churches serving ELCA congregations; the installation of the ELCA presiding bishop was performed through the laying on of hands by Lutheran bishops in the historic episcopate. This provision was opposed by some in the ELCA, which after its founding merger in 1988, held a lengthy study of the ministry which was undertaken with divided opinions. In response to concerns about the meaning of the CCM, synod bishops in the ELCA drafted the Tucson resolution which presented the official ELCA position. It made clear that there is no requirement to ordain deacons or accept their ministry. It also provided assurance that the ELCA did not and was not required by CCM to change its own theological stance.

Lutheran churches of Scandinavian origin, such as the Church of Sweden and Church in Kenya, affirm apostolic succession and are in the historical episcopate; nevertheless, some within the ELCA argued that the historical episcopate would contradict the doctrine that the church exists wherever the Word of God is preached and sacraments are practiced. The traditional ELCA doctrine is affirmed by the Tucson resolution. Others objected on the grounds that adopting the Episcopalian / Anglican view on priestly orders and hierarchical structure was contrary to the Evangelical Lutheran concept of the "priesthood of all believers", which holds that all Christians stand on equal footing before God. They argued that the Old Covenant required a priest to mediate between God and humanity, but that New Covenant explicitly abolishes the need for priestly role by making every Christian a priest with direct access to God's grace. The Tucson resolution explained that the ELCA had not adopted the Episcopal view, but ECUSA or Reformed ordinands accepted by ELCA congregations would follow ELCA practice. Still others objected because of the implied directive that the use of a lay presidency would be abolished. This was a particular issue for rural congregations that periodically "called" a congregation member to conduct communion services consecrating the elements (of bread and wine for service) in the interim period or with the absence of ordained clergy (pastor). The Tucson resolution explicitly affirmed the continued use of lay ministry.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Called to Common Mission


text:
Context menu

A context menu (also called contextual, shortcut, and pop up or pop-up menu) is a menu in a graphical user interface (GUI) that appears upon user interaction, such as a right-click mouse operation. A context menu offers a limited set of choices that are available in the current state, or context, of the operating system or application to which the menu belongs. Usually the available choices are actions related to the selected object. From a technical point of view, such a context menu is a graphical control element.

History
Context menus first appeared in the Smalltalk environment on the Xerox Alto computer, where they were called pop-up menus; they were invented by Dan Ingalls in the mid-1970s.

Microsoft Office v3.0 introduced the context menu for copy and paste functionality in 1990. Borland demonstrated extensive use of the context menu in 1991 at the Second Paradox Conference in Phoenix Arizona. Lotus 1-2-3/G for OS/2 v1.0 added additional formatting options in 1991. Borland Quattro Pro for Windows v1.0 introduced the Properties context menu option in 1992.

Implementation
Context menus are opened via various forms of user interaction that target a region of the GUI that supports context menus. The specific form of user interaction and the means by which a region is targeted vary:

 * On a computer running Microsoft Windows, macOS, or Unix running the X Window System, clicking the secondary mouse button (usually the right button) opens a context menu for the region that is under the mouse pointer.
 * For quickness, implementations may additionally support hold-and-release selection, meaning the pointer is held down and dragged, and released at desirable menu entry.
 * On systems that support one-button mice, context menus are typically opened by pressing and holding the primary mouse button (this works on the icons in the Dock on macOS) or by pressing a keyboard/mouse button combination (e.g. Ctrl-mouse click in Classic Mac OS and macOS). A keyboard alternative for macOS is to enable Mouse keys in Universal Access. Then, depending on whether a laptop or compact or extended keyboard type is used, the shortcut is ++5 or +5 (numeric keypad) or ++i (laptop).
 * On systems with a multi-touch interface such as MacBook or Surface, the context menu can be opened by pressing or tapping with two fingers instead of just one.

 * Some cameras on smartphones for example recognize a QR code when a picture is taken. Then a pop-up appears if you want to 'open' the QR content. This could be anything like a website or to configure your phone to connect to Wi-Fi. See image.
 * On some user interfaces, context menu items are accompanied by icons for quicker recognition upon navigation.
 * Context menus can also have a top row of icons only for quick access to most frequently used options.

Windows mouse click behavior is such that the context menu doesn't open while the mouse button is pressed, but only opens the menu when the button is released, so the user has to click again to select a context menu item. This behavior differs from that of macOS and most free software GUIs.
 * In Microsoft Windows, pressing the Application key or Shift+F10 opens a context menu for the region that has focus.

Context menus are sometimes hierarchically organized, allowing navigation through different levels of the menu structure. The implementations differ: Microsoft Word was one of the first applications to only show sub-entries of some menu entries after clicking an arrow icon on the context menu, otherwise executing an action associated with the parent entry. This makes it possible to quickly repeat an action with the parameters of the previous execution, and to better separate options from actions.

X Window Managers
The following window managers provide context menu functionality:

 * Awesome
 * IceWM—middle-click and right-click context menus on desktop, menu bar, title bars, and title icon
 * olwm
 * openbox
 * sawfish

Usability
Context menus have received some criticism from usability analysts when improperly used, as some applications make certain features only available in context menus, which may confuse even experienced users (especially when the context menus can only be activated in a limited area of the application's client window).

Context menus usually open in a fixed position under the pointer, but when the pointer is near a screen edge the menu will be displaced - thus reducing consistency and impeding use of muscle memory. If the context menu is being triggered by keyboard, such as by using Shift + F10, the context menu appears near the focused widget instead of the position of the pointer, to save recognition efforts.

In documentation
Microsoft's guidelines call for always using the term context menu, and explicitly deprecate shortcut menu.

title: Context menu


text:
Jews as the chosen people

In Judaism, the concept of the Jews as chosen people (הָעָם הַנִבְחַר hāʿām hanīvḥar) is the belief that the Jews as a subset, via partial descent from the ancient Israelites, are also chosen people, i.e. selected to be in a covenant with God. Israelites being properly the chosen people of God is found directly in the Book of Deuteronomy 7:6 as the verb baḥar (בָּחַר), and is alluded to elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible using other terms such as "holy people" as goy or gentile, Book of Exodus 19:6. Much is written about these topics in rabbinic literature. The three largest Jewish denominations—Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism—maintain the belief that the Jews have been chosen by God for a purpose. Sometimes this choice is seen by believers as charging the Jewish people with a specific mission—to be a light unto the nations, and to exemplify the covenant with God as described in the Torah.

While the concept of "chosenness" may be understood by some to connote ethnic supremacy, the status as a "chosen people" within Judaism does not preclude a belief that God has a relationship with other peoples—rather, Judaism holds that God had entered into a covenant with all humankind, and that Jews and non-Jews alike have a relationship with God. Biblical references as well as rabbinic literature support this view: Moses refers to the "God of the spirits of all flesh", the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) also identifies prophets outside the community of Israel and the prophet Jonah is explicitly told to go prophesize to the non-Jewish people of Nineveh. Based on these statements and stories, some rabbis theorized that, in the words of Natan'el al-Fayyumi, a Yemenite Jewish theologian of the 12th century, "God permitted to every people something he forbade to others ... [and] God sends a prophet to every people according to their own language." (Levine, 1907/1966) The Mishnah states that "Humanity was produced from one man, Adam, to show God's greatness. When a man mints a coin in a press, each coin is identical. But when the King of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, creates people in the form of Adam not one is similar to any other" (Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5). The Tosefta, an important supplement to the Mishnah, also states: "Righteous people of all nations have a share in the world to come" (Sanhedrin 105a).

According to the Israel Democracy Institute, approximately two thirds of Israeli Jews believe that Jews are the "chosen people".

Etymological background
The term "chosen people" is free translated from the biblical terms ʿam segullah (“treasure people”) and ʿam nahallah (“heritage people”).

In religious texts
According to Deuteronomy, when the Lord delivers the Israelites to the land, the other nations will be cast out, and "thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them" Deuteronomy 7:5-7:6,
 * "But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire. For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth".

A similar passage exalting Israel as the chosen people follows prohibitions on baldness and cutting yourself in mourning, "For thou art a holy people".

The Torah also says,
 * "Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me from all the peoples, for all the earth is mine."

God promises that he will never exchange his people with any other:
 * "And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you."

Other Torah verses about chosenness,
 * "And you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation"
 * "The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all people; but because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your ancestors."

The obligation imposed upon the Israelites was emphasized by the prophet Amos:
 * "You only have I singled out of all the families of the earth: therefore will I visit upon you all your iniquities."

Rabbinic views
Most Jewish texts do not state that "God chose the Jews" by itself. Rather, this is usually linked with a mission or purpose, such as proclaiming God's message among all the nations, even though Jews cannot become "unchosen" if they shirk their mission. This implies a special duty, which evolves from the belief that Jews have been pledged by the covenant which God concluded with the biblical patriarch Abraham, their ancestor, and again with the entire Jewish nation at Mount Sinai. In this view, Jews are charged with living a holy life as God's priest-people.

In the Jewish prayerbook (the Siddur), chosenness is referred to in a number of ways. The blessing for reading the Torah reads, "Praised are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who has chosen us out of all the nations and bestowed upon us His Torah." In the "Kiddush", a prayer of sanctification, in which the Sabbath is inaugurated over a cup of wine, the text reads, "For you have chosen us and sanctified us out of all the nations, and have given us the Sabbath as an inheritance in love and favour. Praised are you, Lord, who hallows the Sabbath." In the "Kiddush" recited on festivals it reads, "Blessed are You ... who have chosen us from among all nations, raised us above all tongues, and made us holy through His commandments." The Aleinu prayer refers to the concept of Jews as a chosen people: "'It is our duty to praise the Master of all, to exalt the Creator of the Universe, who has not made us like the nations of the world and has not placed us like the families of the earth; who has not designed our destiny to be like theirs, nor our lot like that of all their multitude. We bend the knee and bow and acknowledge before the Supreme King of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be he, that it is he who stretched forth the heavens and founded the earth. His seat of glory is in the heavens above; his abode of majesty is in the lofty heights."

Sometimes this choice is seen as charging the Jewish people with a specific mission—to be a light unto the nations, and to exemplify the covenant with God as described in the Torah. This view, however, does not always preclude a belief that God has a relationship with other peoples—rather, Judaism held that God had entered into a covenant with all humankind, and that Jews and non-Jews alike have a relationship with God. Biblical references as well as rabbinic literature support this view: Moses refers to the "God of the spirits of all flesh", and the Tanakh also identifies prophets outside the community of Israel. Based on these statements, some rabbis theorized that, in the words of Natan'el al-Fayyumi, a Yemenite Jewish theologian of the 12th century, "God permitted to every people something he forbade to others... [and] God sends a prophet to every people according to their own language." The Mishnah states that "Humanity was produced from one man, Adam, to show God's greatness. When a man mints a coin in a press, each coin is identical. But when the King of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, creates people in the form of Adam not one is similar to any other." The Tosefta, a collection of important post-Talmudic discourses, also states: "Righteous people of all nations have a share in the world to come."

Further interpretations

 * The following section contains information from the Jewish Encyclopedia, originally published between 1901–1906, which is in the public domain.

According to the Rabbis, "Israel is of all nations the most willful or headstrong one, and the Torah was to give it the right scope and power of resistance, or else the world could not have withstood its fierceness."

"The Lord offered the Law to all nations; but all refused to accept it except Israel."

How do we understand "A Gentile who consecrates his life to the study and observance of the Law ranks as high as the high priest", says R. Meïr, by deduction from Lev. xviii. 5; II Sam. vii. 19; Isa. xxvi. 2; Ps. xxxiii. 1, cxviii. 20, cxxv. 4, where all stress is laid not on Israel, but on man or the righteous one.

Maimonides states: ''It is now abundantly clear that the pledges Hashem made to Avraham and his descendants would be fulfilled exclusively first in Yitzchak and then in Yaakov, Yitzchak son. This is confirmed by a passage that states, "He is ever mindful of His covenant ... that He made with Avraham, swore to Yitzchak, and confirmed in a decree for Yaakov, for Yisrael, as an eternal covenant." ''

The Gemara states this regarding a non-Jew who studies Torah [his 7 mitzvot] and regarding this, see Shita Mekubetzes, Bava Kama 38a who says that this is an exaggeration. In any case, this statement was not extolling the non-Jew. The Rishonim explain that it is extolling the Torah.

Tosfos explains that it uses the example of a kohen gadol (high priest), because this statement is based on the verse, "y'kara hi mipnimim" (it is more precious than pearls). This is explained elsewhere in the Gemara to mean that the Torah is more precious pnimim (translated here as "inside" instead of as "pearls"; thus that the Torah is introspectively absorbed into the person), which refers to lifnai v'lifnim (translated as "the most inner of places"), that is the Holy of Holies where the kahon gadol went.

In any case, in Midrash Rabba this statement is made with an important addition: a non-Jew who converts and studies Torah etc.

The Nation of Israel is likened to the olive. Just as this fruit yields its precious oil only after being much pressed and squeezed, so Israel's destiny is one of great oppression and hardship, in order that it may thereby give forth its illuminating wisdom. Poverty is the quality most befitting Israel as the chosen people. Only on account of its good works is Israel among the nations "as the lily among thorns", or "as wheat among the chaff."

Modern Orthodox views
Rabbi Lord Immanuel Jakobovits, former Chief Rabbi of the United Synagogue of Great Britain (Modern Orthodox Judaism), described chosenness in this way: "'Yes, I do believe that the chosen people concept as affirmed by Judaism in its holy writ, its prayers, and its millennial tradition. In fact, I believe that every people—and indeed, in a more limited way, every individual—is 'chosen' or destined for some distinct purpose in advancing the designs of Providence. Only, some fulfill their mission and others do not. Maybe the Greeks were chosen for their unique contributions to art and philosophy, the Romans for their pioneering services in law and government, the British for bringing parliamentary rule into the world, and the Americans for piloting democracy in a pluralistic society. The Jews were chosen by God to be 'peculiar unto Me' as the pioneers of religion and morality; that was and is their national purpose.'"

Modern Orthodox theologian Michael Wyschogrod wrote:

"[T]he initial election of Abraham himself was not earned. ... We are simply told that God commanded Abraham to leave his place of birth and go to a land that God would show him.  He is also promised that his descendants will become a numerous people.  But nowhere does the Bible tell us why Abraham rather than someone else was chosen.  The implication is that God chooses whom He wishes and that He owes no accounting to anyone for His choices."

Rabbi Norman Lamm, a leader of Modern Orthodox Judaism, wrote: "'The chosenness of Israel relates exclusively to its spiritual vocation embodied in the Torah; the doctrine, indeed, was announced at Sinai. Whenever it is mentioned in our liturgy—such as the blessing immediately preceding the Shema....it is always related to Torah or Mitzvot (commandments). This spiritual vocation consists of two complementary functions, described as 'Goy Kadosh', that of a holy nation, and 'Mamlekhet Kohanim', that of a kingdom of priests. The first term denotes the development of communal separateness or differences in order to achieve a collective self-transcendence. ... The second term implies the obligation of this brotherhood of the spiritual elite toward the rest of mankind; priesthood is defined by the prophets as fundamentally a teaching vocation.'"

Conservative views
Conservative Judaism views the concept of chosenness in this way: "'Few beliefs have been subject to as much misunderstanding as the 'Chosen People' doctrine. The Torah and the Prophets clearly stated that this does not imply any innate Jewish superiority. In the words of Amos (3:2) 'You alone have I singled out of all the families of the earth—that is why I will call you to account for your iniquities.' The Torah tells us that we are to be 'a kingdom of priests and a holy nation' with obligations and duties which flowed from our willingness to accept this status. Far from being a license for special privilege, it entailed additional responsibilities not only toward God but to our fellow human beings. As expressed in the blessing at the reading of the Torah, our people have always felt it to be a privilege to be selected for such a purpose. For the modern traditional Jew, the doctrine of the election and the covenant of Israel offers a purpose for Jewish existence which transcends its own self interests. It suggests that because of our special history and unique heritage we are in a position to demonstrate that a people that takes seriously the idea of being covenanted with God can not only thrive in the face of oppression, but can be a source of blessing to its children and its neighbors. It obligates us to build a just and compassionate society throughout the world and especially in the land of Israel where we may teach by example what it means to be a 'covenant people, a light unto the nations.''"

Rabbi Reuven Hammer comments on the excised sentence in the Aleinu prayer mentioned above:

"'Originally the text read that God has not made us like the nations who 'bow down to nothingness and vanity, and pray to an impotent god', ... In the Middle Ages these words were censored, since the church believed they were an insult to Christianity. Omitting them tends to give the impression that the Aleinu teaches that we are both different and better than others. The actual intent is to say that we are thankful that God has enlightened us so that, unlike the pagans, we worship the true God and not idols. There is no inherent superiority in being Jewish, but we do assert the superiority of monotheistic belief over paganism. Although paganism still exists today, we are no longer the only ones to have a belief in one God.'"

Reform views
Reform Judaism views the concept of chosenness as follows: "Throughout the ages it has been Israel's mission to witness to the Divine in the face of every form of paganism and materialism. We regard it as our historic task to cooperate with all men in the establishment of the kingdom of God, of universal brotherhood, Justice, truth and peace on earth. This is our Messianic goal." In 1999 the Reform movement stated, "We affirm that the Jewish people are bound to God by an eternal covenant, as reflected in our varied understandings of Creation, Revelation and Redemption. ... We are Israel, a people aspiring to holiness, singled out through our ancient covenant and our unique history among the nations to be witnesses to God's presence. We are linked by that covenant and that history to all Jews in every age and place."

Equality of souls
Many Kabbalistic sources, notably the Tanya, contain statements to the effect that the Jewish soul is qualitatively different from the non-Jewish soul. A number of known Chabad rabbis offered alternative readings of the Tanya, did not take this teaching literally, and even managed to reconcile it with the leftist ideas of internationalism and class struggle. The original text of the Tanya refers to the "idol worshippers" and does not mention the "nations of the world" at all, although such interpretation was endorsed by Menachem Mendel Schneerson and is popular in contemporary Chabad circles. Hillel of Parich, an early Tanya commentator, wrote that the souls of righteous Gentiles are more similar to the Jewish souls, and are generally good and not egoistic. This teaching was accepted by Schneerson and is considered normative in Chabad.

Different in character but not different in value
According to the author of the Tanya himself, a righteous non-Jew can achieve a high level of spirituality, similar to an angel, although his soul is still fundamentally different in character, but not value, from a Jewish one. Tzemach Tzedek, the third rebbe of Chabad, wrote that the Muslims are naturally good-hearted people. Rabbi Yosef Jacobson, a popular contemporary Chabad lecturer, teaches that in today's world most non-Jews belong to the category of righteous Gentiles, effectively rendering the Tanya's attitude anachronistic.

Altruism
An anti-Zionist interpretation of Tanya was offered by Abraham Yehudah Khein, a prominent Ukrainian Chabad rabbi, who supported anarchist communism and considered Peter Kropotkin a great Tzaddik. Khein basically read the Tanya backwards; since the souls of idol worshipers are known to be evil, according to the Tanya, while the Jewish souls are known to be good, he concluded that truly altruistic people are really Jewish, in a spiritual sense, while Jewish nationalists and class oppressors are not. By this logic, he claimed that Vladimir Solovyov and Rabindranath Tagore probably have Jewish souls, while Leon Trotsky and other totalitarians do not, and many Zionists, whom he compared to apes, are merely "Jewish by birth certificate".

Righteous non-Jews
Nachman of Breslov also believed that Jewishness is a level of consciousness, and not an intrinsic inborn quality. He wrote that, according to the Book of Malachi, one can find "potential Jews" among all nations, whose souls are illuminated by the leap of "holy faith", which "activated" the Jewishness in their souls. These people would otherwise convert to Judaism, but prefer not to do so. Instead, they recognize the Divine unity within their pagan religions.

Isaac Arama, an influential philosopher and mystic of the 15th century, believed that righteous non-Jews are spiritually identical to the righteous Jews. Rabbi Menachem Meiri, a famous Catalan Talmudic commentator and Maimonidian philosopher, considered all people, who sincerely profess an ethical religion, to be part of a greater "spiritual Israel". He explicitly included Christians and Muslims in this category. Meiri rejected all Talmudic laws that discriminate between the Jews and non-Jews, claiming that they only apply to the ancient idolators, who had no sense of morality. The only exceptions are a few laws related directly or indirectly to intermarriage, which Meiri did recognize.

Meiri applied his idea of "spiritual Israel" to the Talmudic statements about unique qualities of the Jewish people. For example, he believed that the famous saying that Israel is above astrological predestination (Ein Mazal le-Israel) also applied to the followers of other ethical faiths. He also considered countries, inhabited by decent moral non-Jews, such as Languedoc, as a spiritual part of the Holy Land.

Spinoza
One Jewish critic of chosenness was the philosopher Baruch Spinoza. In the third chapter of his Theologico-Political Treatise, Spinoza mounts an argument against a naive interpretation of God's choice of the Jews. Bringing evidence from the Bible itself, he argues that God's choice of Israel was not unique (he had chosen other nations before choosing the Hebrew nation) and that the choice of the Jews is neither inclusive (it does not include all of the Jews, but only the 'pious' ones) nor exclusive (it also includes 'true gentile prophets'). Finally, he argues that God's choice is not unconditional. Recalling the numerous times God threatened the complete destruction of the Hebrew nation, he asserts that this choice is neither absolute, nor eternal, nor necessary.

Einstein
In a German-language letter to philosopher Eric Gutkind, dated 3 January 1954, the physicist Albert Einstein wrote: "The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.... For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people.... I cannot see anything “chosen” about them."

Reconstructionist criticism
Reconstructionist Judaism rejects the concept of chosenness. Its founder, Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, said that the idea that God chose the Jewish people leads to racist beliefs among Jews, thus, it must be excised from Jewish theology. This rejection of chosenness is made explicit in the movement's siddurim (prayer books). For example, the original blessing recited before reading from the Torah contains the phrase, "asher bahar banu mikol ha’amim"—"Praised are you Lord our God, ruler of the Universe, who has chosen us from among all peoples by giving us the Torah." The Reconstructionist version is rewritten as "asher kervanu la’avodato", "Praised are you Lord our God, ruler of the Universe, who has drawn us to your service by giving us the Torah." In the mid-1980s, the Reconstructionist movement issued its Platform on Reconstructionism. It states that the idea of chosenness is "morally untenable", because anyone who has such beliefs "implies the superiority of the elect community and the rejection of others."

Not all Reconstructionists accept this view. The newest siddur of the movement, Kol Haneshamah, includes the traditional blessings as an option, and some modern Reconstructionist writers have opined that the traditional formulation should be embraced because it is not racist.

An original prayer book by the Reconstructionist feminist poet Marcia Falk, The Book of Blessings, has been accepted by many Reform and Reconstructionist Jews. Falk rejects all concepts which are related to hierarchy or distinction; she sees any distinction as leading to the acceptance of other kinds of distinctions, thus leading to prejudice. She writes that as a politically liberal feminist, she must reject distinctions made between men and women, homosexuals and heterosexuals, Jews and non-Jews, and to some extent even distinctions between the Sabbath and the other six days of the week. She thus rejects the idea of chosenness as unethical. She also rejects Jewish theology in general, and instead holds to a form of religious humanism. Falk writes: "'The idea of Israel as God's chosen people ... is a key concept in rabbinic Judaism. Yet it is particularly problematic for many Jews today, in that it seems to fly in the face of monotheistic belief that all humanity is created in the divine image—and hence, all humanity is equally loved and valued by God. ... I find it difficult to conceive of a feminist Judaism that would incorporate it in its teaching: the valuing of one people over and above others is all too analogous to the privileging of one sex over another.'" Reconstructionist author Judith Plaskow also criticises the idea of chosenness, for many of the same reasons as Falk. A politically liberal lesbian, Plaskow rejects most distinctions made between men and women, homosexuals and heterosexuals, and Jews and non-Jews. In contrast to Falk, Plaskow does not reject all concepts of difference as inherently leading to unethical beliefs, and holds to a more classical form of Jewish theism than Falk.

A number of responses to these views have been made by Reform and Conservative Jews; they hold the view that these criticisms are against teachings that do not exist within liberal forms of Judaism, and such teachings are rare in Orthodox Judaism (outside certain Haredi communities, such as Chabad). A separate criticism stems from the very existence of feminist forms of Judaism in all denominations of Judaism, which do not have a problem with the concept of chosenness.

Islam
The children of Israel enjoy a special status in the Islamic holy book, the Quran (2:47 and 2:122). However, Muslim scholars point out that this status did not confer upon Israelites any racial superiority, and was only valid so long as the Israelites maintain their covenant with God.

Christianity
Some Christians believe that the Jews were God's chosen people, but because of Jewish rejection of Jesus, the Christians in turn received that special status. This doctrine is known as Supersessionism.

Other Christians, such as the Christadelphians, believe that God has not rejected Israel as his chosen people and that the Jews will in fact accept Jesus as their Messiah at his Second Coming, resulting in their salvation. The view that the Jews still retain their status as the chosen people is also associated with Dispensational theology, promoted by John Nelson Darby and Cyrus Scofield.

Augustine criticized Jewish chosenness as "carnal." He reasoned that Israel was chosen "according to the flesh."

The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary similarly argues that God made Israel the "holy nation" to exclusively uphold the promises made to their "pious forefathers". They argue that Jewish supremacist views are unsound, with Jews being frequently described as a small people that engaged in "perverse" moral conduct in the Bible.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes the "People of God" as referring to all people who have faith in Christ and are baptized. They have characteristics "that distinguish it from all other religious, ethnic, political, or cultural groups found in history".

Influence on Judaism's relationship with other religions
Avi Beker, an Israeli scholar and former Secretary General of the World Jewish Congress, regarded the idea of the chosen people as Judaism's defining concept and "the central unspoken psychological, historical, and theological problem which is at the heart of Jewish-Gentile relations." In his book The Chosen: The History of an Idea, and the Anatomy of an Obsession, Beker expresses the view that the concept of chosenness is the driving force behind Jewish-Gentile relations, explaining both the admiration and, more pointedly, the envy and the hatred which the world has felt towards the Jews in both religious and secular terms. Beker argues that while Christianity has modified its doctrine on the displacement of the Jews, Islam has neither reversed nor reformed its theology concerning the succession of both the Jews and the Christians. According to Beker, this presents a major barrier to conflict resolution in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Ethnocentrism
The Israeli philosopher Ze'ev Levy writes that chosenness can be "(partially) justified only from the historical angle" with respect to its spiritual and moral contribution to Jewish life through the centuries as "a powerful agent of consolation and hope". He points out, however, that modern anthropological theories "do not merely proclaim the inherent universal equality of all people [as] human beings; they also stress the equivalence [emphasis in original] of all human cultures." He continues that "there are no inferior and superior people or cultures but only different, other, ones." He concludes that the concept of chosenness entails ethnocentrism, "which does not go hand in hand with otherness, that is, with unconditional respect of otherness".

Some people have said that Judaism's chosen people concept is racist because it implies that Jews are superior to non-Jews. The Anti-Defamation League asserts that the concept of a chosen people within Judaism has nothing to do with racial superiority.

title: Jews as the chosen people


text:
Christian persecution

Christian persecution may refer to:

 * History of Christian thought on persecution and tolerance

 * Persecution of other groups by Christians
 * Historical persecution by Christians
 * Persecution of Heathens (disambiguation)
 * Persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire
 * Christian persecution of paganism under Theodosius I
 * Anti-paganism policy of Constantius II
 * Persecution of Germanic Pagans (disambiguation)
 * Persecution of Ottoman Muslims
 * Persecution of Jews
 * Black Death Jewish persecutions

 * Persecutions of Christians by other Christians
 * Anti-Catholicism
 * Anti-Protestantism
 * Persecution of Eastern Orthodox Christians
 * Persecution of Christians in Mexico

 * Persecution of Christians by other groups
 * Persecution of Christians
 * Persecution of Christians in the New Testament
 * Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire
 * Decian persecution
 * Persecution in Lyon
 * Diocletianic Persecution
 * List of Christians martyred during the reign of Diocletian
 * Gothic persecution of Christians
 * Persecution of Eastern Orthodox Christians
 * Persecution of Oriental Orthodox Christians
 * Persecution of Copts
 * Persecution of Christians in the modern era
 * Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church in Germany
 * Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi Germany
 * Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union
 * Persecution of Christians in the Eastern Bloc
 * Eastern Catholic victims of Soviet persecutions
 * Religious persecution during the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina
 * Anti-Christian violence in India
 * Genocide of Christians by ISIL
 * Persecution of Christians in the Muslim world

title: Christian persecution