I wouldn't say that it was "quite the norm"!, Jacqui, it is ritual disfigurement, no matter which way you "cut it", so to speak. If we males were not meant to have a foreskin, we would have been born without one surely ?? If the god Jehovah that is worshipped by Jews was as omnipotent as they believe, he or she, would have surely wished his followers to be made in his image, no ? Ergo, in the beginning there was no being but God/Jehovah/Allah/Krishna/Shiva, et al, there was no one else around to mutilate them, so, if the "Supreme" being wished his followers to be created in his/her image, why force this mutilation upon them ?? A never-ending dilemma, methinks.