Anti-circumcision activists led by Mike Buchanan, above, are to mount a protest on March 22 outside one of the UK’s largest circumcision clinics.
The protesters, according to this Luton Today report, are targeting the Thornhill Clinic in Luton for carrying out “child abuse”.
The protest is being organised by Justice for Men and Boys, and will take place outside Thornhill Clinic, Luton, in opposition to what it calls the “mutilation” of boys.
The screenshot below is taken from the clinic’s website:
The clinic adds:
We cater for all faiths and backgrounds with doctors of different ethnic groups being sensitive to, and catering for any religious or cultural requirement.
Though circumcision for non-medical reasons is not available on the NHS, the procedure is still popular for people from a number of different backgrounds, many of whom use Thornhill Clinic.
However Justice for Men and Boys claims that the procedure is cruel as young boys are not able to give consent. J4MB leader Mike Buchanan said:
The whole point is to take away material that contact nerves and give pleasure to men during sex. People say that it is for hygiene reasons but it is just a cultural and religious thing that has survived. It should be consigned to history.
He added:
There are no health benefits and people have this funny idea that female genital mutilation is this awful, damaging thing and that circumcision is just snipping the foreskin off. They are directly comparable.
In calling for support , J4MB says on its website:
We urge you to attend the protest, whether or not you’ve been personally affected by MGM. We have men at these protests who are uncircumcised, and men who were circumcised, but have no problem with that. They firmly believe, however, that in future male minors should not suffer the procedure, and be allowed to make up their own minds after they’ve passed 18 years of age.
In the comments section of the Luton Today report, Buchanan quoted Moses Maimonides, the Jewish intellectual and physician, as saying back in 1135:
With regard to circumcision, one of the reasons for it is, in my opinion, the wish to bring about a decrease in sexual intercourse and a weakening of the organ in question, so that this activity be diminished and the organ be in as quiet a state as possible …
The fact that circumcision weakens the faculty of sexual excitement and sometimes perhaps diminishes the pleasure is indubitable. For if at birth this member has been made to bleed and has had its covering taken away from it, it must indubitably be weakened. In my opinion, this is the strongest of the reasons for circumcision.
Jewish men, sexually subdued and readily controlled by their wives, don’t stray into mischief. The power of his member has been diminished so that he has no strength to lie with many lewd women.
In a statement Thornhill Clinic said:
We take great pride in our services, particularly with the welfare of our babies, children and adults.
Our fully trained doctors have performed several thousand operations and are very skilled, experienced and above all provide the very highest standards of professional care.
It added:Our presence gives parents and communities the option to use a registered and reputable clinic to have their sons circumcised.
This in turn will stop the many home circumcisions that are currently taking place in and around the UK; the home is an unsafe environment to carry out this or any operation.