The resolution calls the government to draw up a bill allowing the circumcision of boys in the autumn.

Germany’s main political parties – together with Jewish and Muslim groups – have criticised the ruling by the Cologne court in June.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said it risked making Germany a “laughing stock”.

The Cologne ruling involved a doctor who carried out a circumcision on a four-year-old that led to medical complications.

German lawmakers passed a cross-party motion to protect religious circumcision, after a regional court ruled it amounted to bodily harm.

The doctor involved in the case was acquitted and the ruling was not binding. However, critics feared it could set a precedent for other German courts.

Germany’s Medical Association told doctors after the ruling not to perform circumcisions.

Ahead of Thursday’s vote in the lower house of parliament, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said the proposed motion showed that Germany was a “tolerant and cosmopolitan country”.

European Jewish and Muslim groups have also joined forces to defend circumcision.

An unusual joint statement was signed by leaders of groups including the Rabbinical Centre of Europe, the European Jewish Parliament, the European Jewish Association, Germany’s Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs and the Islamic Centre Brussels.

“We consider this to be an affront [to] our basic religious and human rights,” it said.

Source: BBC

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