Hundreds of Jewish, Muslim and Christian protesters demonstrated in the German capital of Berlin on Sunday for religious 
freedom and the decriminalisation of circumcision.
Police officials said 300 demonstrators appeared at Bebelplatz in the Mitte district in eastern Berlin.
The protest was in reaction to a new directive issued by Berlin’s Justice Minister, Thomas Heilmann , which introduced strict new rules for circumcision, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Under the new guidelines, for circumcision to remain legal, parents must prove that the procedure has a religious basis, the state authority must advise the parents of the health risks associated with circumcision, and a doctor, rather than a religious official, must perform the procedure.
The former head of Berlin’s 10,500-member Jewish community, Lala Süskind, spoke at the rally and said it was unacceptable that people who are incompetent and intolerant continue to “pipe up“ against circumcision and find a large echo in German society.
Süskind, a popular Jewish leader in Berlin, stressed that the religious ritual is important for identity for young Jewish and Muslim boys, and noted that the World Health Organisation recommends the procedure as a medically accepted practice. The demonstrators turned out as a reaction to last week’s administrative law decision from Berlin state Senate.
Jewish organisations in Berlin and across the country have categorically rejected Heilmann’s law as gutting religious freedom in Berlin.
Mr Heilmann issued the new regulation in response to a Cologne court decision that criminalised circumcision in the western German city. The ruling rocked German- Jewish relations and has shone a spotlight on the justice system’s treatment of religious freedom in post-Holocaust Germany.
According to Berlin’s government, the local authorities are waiting for national legislation to remedy the uncertain legal situation.
According to German magazine, Focus, Dr. Dieter Graumann, the head of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, said, “I find it as intolerable that we, Jews, have been labeled torturers of children and a part of Jewish life has been presented as illegitimate.”
Kenan Kolat, the head of the Turkish community in Germany, said at the Sunday rally that “no one can stop circumcision in Germany.” He added that “the accusations of opponents of circumcision show the prejudices of some Germans, as well as the growing anti-Semitism and anti-Islamism,“ the German wire service DAPD reported.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told Focus on Sunday on his way to Jordan, “I am very worried about this debate. It will in no way be understood outside of our country.” He added that the dispute must be resolved so that religious traditions remained protected in Germany.
Germany’s federal Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser- Schnarrenberger said on Sunday that the government will fully implement the resolution of the Bundestag concerning the non-criminality of circumcision.