Religious male circumcision

Religious male circumcision generally occurs shortly after birth, during childhood or around puberty as part of a rite of passage. Circumcision is most prevalent in the religions of Judaism, Islam, Coptic Christianity, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

Many countries with majorities of Christian adherents have low circumcision rates (as in Europe and South America), while both religious and non-religious circumcision is common in some predominantly Christian countries such as the United States, and the Philippines, Canada, and in North and West Africa and it is common in countries such as the Cameroon,Democratic Republic of the Congo,Ethiopia,Eritrea,Ghana,Liberia,Nigeria and Kenya, Male circumcision is also widely practiced among Christians from South Korea, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, and North Africa. Circumcision is near universal in the Christian countries of Oceania. While The Catholic Church currently maintains a neutral position on the practice of non-religious circumcision,Coptic Christianity and Ethiopian Orthodoxy and Eritrean Orthodoxy still observe male circumcision and practice circumcision as a rite of passage. It is practiced by the Muslim population in India. Hodges argues that in Ancient Greece the foreskin was valued and that Greek and Roman attempts to abolish ritual circumcision were prompted by humanitarian concerns.