According to the results of a YouGov poll conducted on the behalf of the Jewish Chronicle (UK)
38% support a ban on Bris Milah (circumcision), 35% against a ban on Bris Milah, and 27% are undecided.
45% support a ban on Shechita (Kosher animal slaughtering), 27% are against ban on Shechita, and 28 27% are undecided.
Interestingly enough that 38% figure is bigger than the support for the largest party in Britain's Parliament according to the latest poll
- 37% of the public support Labour
- 27% of the public support the Conservatives
- 17% of the public support the UK Independence Part
People who support the party UK Independence Party were the most likely to support these antisemitic policies. With 71% of people wanting to ban Shechita, and 51% wanting to ban Milah (the only party above 50%). Non surprisingly the party that is most in favor of taking away Jews religous freedom is strongly in favor of LGBT "rights".
Also not surprisingly younger people are more supporting of banning both Milah and Shechita. 41% of 18-24 year-olds would ban both Milah and Shechita.
These numbers are especially troubling because there have been numerous attempts to ban Milah in the past few years around the world (most notably in Germany but also in places like Sweden, Norway, Holland, and Finland) including the United States (Massachusetts, San Francisco, and Santa Monica)
Glen Poole, the director of "gender equality consultancy Helping Men", and a leading fighter against Bris Milah said
"Ending
religious circumcision in the UK is now more popular with the British
public than any of the political parties. As the majority of British
people want to ban this dangerous practice, it is time for the
Government to lead the nation in having the difficult conversations
required to end medically unnecessary male circumcision in the UK.
The
Government's 'call to end violence against women and girls strategy'
makes it clear that harmful practices like female genital mutilation are
unacceptable in a modern equal society. But surely protecting girls
against unnecessary genital surgery whilst turning a blind eye as
surgery is performed on their brothers, is also not acceptable in a
modern equal society.
"It
is now five years since the NSPCC and the Children's Rights Alliance
for England recommended that the Government take action to end the
practice of circumcising boys without their consent. In that time baby
boys bled to death in the UK as a result of medically unnecessary male
circumcision. It is time now, with the public's backing, for the
Government to take decisive action to confine this medically unnecessary practice to the history books."
Dayan Pinchas Toledano, former head of the Sephardi Beth Din, now
Haham of Amsterdam, said that the survey’s results “don’t surprise or
shock me”. The Dutch community recently mobilised to protect shechita after
politicians wanted to introduce compulsory pre-stunning of animals
before religious slaughter — which would have meant banning the Jewish
method of killing animals. Dayan Toledano, himself a retired mohel, said: “If you try to ban such practices, you have no religious freedom at all.”
While Dayan Yisroel Lichtenstein, head of the Federation Beth Din, said:
“It’s worrying and it shows we need to do a lot more public relations to
put our case.” Dayan Lichtenstein is particularly concerned at the level of support
for a ban on shechita among young people “because I would have expected
their education to have made them more liberally-minded.”
