Icelandic Parliamentarian Silja Dögg Gunnarsdóttir Lawmakers from four different Icelandic parties have co-authored a bill which would ban circumcision without, according to a report from EuroNews, a medical cause “on a person unable to provide informed consent.” The bill proposes a six-year prison term for anyone who is found guilty of “removing part or all of the [child’s] sexual organs.” This piece of legislation has been criticized by leaders of several Scandinavian Jewish communities, as well as members of the Scandinavian Catholic community. An open letter issued by the Jewish Communities in the Nordic Countries stated, according to the Algemeiner, that the ban would make Iceland one of the only countries in the world to “to ban one of the most central, if not the most central rite in the Jewish tradition in modern times.” There have been attempts to ban circumcision in many European nations, including Germany, but a majority of these bans have either failed, or been overturned at later dates. This move by Iceland to ban a significant Jewish religious rite comes just a week after the decision by Polish lawmakers to advance a law intended to ban kosher slaughter. The ban on circumcision would, similar to the ban on kosher slaughter, disproportionately affect Jewish and Muslim communities, as these are the two major minority groups who practice circumcision. Progressive Party member Silja Dögg Gunnarsdóttir, a member of the Icelandic Progressive Party, put forward the initial proposal, and has stated that she does not see it as an attack on religious liberty, but rather a “child protection matter…[c]hildren should also have their own rights for their own beliefs [to choose circumcision or not] when they are adults.” The timing of the potential ban on ritual circumcision is potentially devastating to the growth of the Icelandic Jewish community, as Iceland is currently slated this year to receive its first resident rabbi in over two decades, with plans for a Chabad synagogue developing as well. Banning Brit Milah, the Jewish rite of circumcision, stated the Jewish Communities in the Nordic Countries, “will be an effective deterrent and will guarantee that no Jewish community will be established.” The continuous attack on the rights of religious minorities in European nations is reprehensible. This assault on basic rights of religious freedom and expression can only serve to chip away at the larger fundamental human rights that are enshrined in the constitutions of nations such as Iceland.