Circumcision ruling hits German Jews, Muslims

BERLIN—When the time came to have their son circumcised at age 4, Muhsin Sapci and his wife, Gonca, both first generation immigrants from Turkey, assumed they would simply bring the boy to the nearby Jewish Hospital, used by many Muslim families who also prefer to have the procedure done by a surgeon. But since a German court’s ruling that equated circumcision with bodily harm—and a criminal act—many hospitals across the nation have stopped performing the procedures. The Sapcis are determined to have their son, Asil, who turns 4 this month, circumcised but they do not know where to go. “Right now everything is controlled, most people go to a doctor and the child is covered by insurance,” Sapci said. “If they try to outlaw it, it will still be done, but differently, and that could have consequences.” Their quandary is indicative of the confusion that has been sown by the ruling on June 26 by a court in Cologne that, while not enforceable outside that region, has sent ripples of anger and anxiety throughout the country and beyond. CAIRO—Hundreds of people chanted anti-US and anti-Islamist slogans outside Hillary Clinton’s hotel on Saturday as the US secretary of state urged Egypt’s military and Muslim Brotherhood to complete a transition to full democratic rule. Clinton met Egypt’s newly elected Islamist President Mohamed Mursi on Saturday and was to see military chief Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi on Sunday, two of the central players in the power struggle playing out in the country. After a more than one-hour meeting with Mursi, Clinton made clear Washington wants Egypt’s political players to reach some consensus that would lead to genuine democracy, with the military returning to a purely national security role. DUBAI—Iran could prevent even “a single drop of oil” passing through the Strait of Hormuz if its security is threatened, a naval chief said on Saturday, as tensions simmer over Tehran’s nuclear program. Tehran will increase its military presence in international waters, said Ali Fadavi, naval commander in Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). “If they (the United States) do not obey international laws and the IRGC’s warnings, it will have very bad consequences for them,” Fadavi said, according to Iran’s Fars News Agency. “The IRGC’s naval forces have had the ability since the (Iran-Iraq) war to completely control the Strait of Hormuz and not allow even a single drop of oil to pass through.” PARIS—The new French president, Francois Hollande, said on Saturday that he had told those close to him to keep their private lives private and to resolve their conflicts away from the news media. Hollande, who campaigned for France’s highest office on a pledge to be “a normal president,” has been embarrassed by the evident strain between his partner, Valerie Trierweiler, and his four children, whom he fathered with a former Socialist presidential candidate, Segolene Royal.