Netherlands: Editor says circumcision is genital mutilation

Via Times of Israel:

A major insurer in the Netherlands defended its coverage of circumcision in boys younger than 18 for religious reasons amid criticism of the practice and the impact of Islam in society.

Zilveren Kruis (Silver Cross), which is the kingdom’s largest insurer, included religious circumcision in its 2017 brochure published earlier this month and then defended it in a statement published on its website Tuesday.

“We are seeing that some of the insured parties want to be circumcised or have their boys circumcised,” the agency wrote in replying to “various questions over why some complementary plans include reimbursement for non-medical circumcision,” as Zilveren Kruis defined it.

On Tuesday, René van Rijckevorsel, the acting editor-in-chief of the conservative Elsevier weekly, wrote on Twitter that Zilveren Kruis is encouraging female genital mutilation. After Zilveren Kruis clarified that their insurance covers only males, van Rijckevorsel said he considered this, too, “mutilation.”

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