Monday, June 06, 2011

The comic book campaign against circumcision: There's nothing liberal about it

A reader sent in this photo and a link to the article in the S.F Chronicle describing it:


It depicts a blond superhero seeking to save a child from a villian described as Monster Mohel.

Monster Mohel looks like this:

The text describes him this way: ""Nothing excites Monster Mohel more than cutting into the infantile penile flesh of an eight day old boy."

Let's make a few things absolutely clear:
  1. This is obscene, and it draws heavily on old and vile anti-Semitic myths and imagery.
  2. There is nothing "liberal" about it.
Circumcision has been a part of Judaism for thousands of years. It is not harmful. Liberals don't think the state should get involved in theological decisions, but they also don't think that the state should interfere with harmless, private practices, such as ritual circumcision. The people behind the campaign to ban mila are not liberals. They are authoritarians, who are seeking to deny Jews the freedom to safely and privately practice our religion.

Though the anti-Mila people may not be anti-Semitics in though and deed, this comic book certainly trades on Jew hatred, and the fact that the leaders of the anti-circumcision campaign have not renounced it strongly suggests that they do, too. 

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