To cut or not to cut?

THE Muslim community in Ireland is currently putting a proposal before the HSE aimed at tackling the problem of long waiting lists for cultural circumcision for their male children.

The community, of which there are about 30,000, with two-thirds in Dublin, wants circumcision to be done in a medical centre by a Muslim doctor trained to perform the procedure on infants usually under eight weeks of age.

For people of Islamic faith, circumcision — a procedure in which a portion of the foreskin is removed from the penis — is important because it symbolises hygiene and purification.