The significance of a handshake

[LONDONER]

This is not intended to be a contentious thread. If anyone considers it to be so just ask Andy to delete it. It was sent to me from an unconfirmed source.


Switzerland: What's in a Handshake?



Sometimes it's the little things that are most telling. In Switzerland it has long been customary for students to shake the hands of their teachers at the beginning and end of the school day. It's a sign of solidarity and mutual respect between teacher and pupil, one that is thought to encourage the right classroom atmosphere. Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga recently felt compelled to further explain that shaking hands was part of Swiss culture and daily life.

And the reason she felt compelled to speak out about the handshake is that two Muslim brothers, aged 14 and 15, who have lived in Switzerland for several years (and thus are familiar with its mores), in the town of Therwil, near Basel, refused to shake the hands of their teacher, a woman, because, they claimed, this would violate Muslim teachings that contact with the opposite sex is allowed only with family members. At first the school authorities decided to avoid trouble, and initially granted the boys an exemption from having to shake the hand of any female teacher. But an uproar followed, as Mayor Reto Wolf explained to the BBC: "the community was unhappy with the decision taken by the school. In our culture and in our way of communication a handshake is normal and sends out respect for the other person, and this has to be brought [home] to the children in school."

Therwil's Educational Department reversed the school's decision, explaining in a statement on May 25 that the school's exemption was lifted because "the public interest with respect to equality between men and women and the integration of foreigners significantly outweighs the freedom of religion." It added that a teacher has the right to demand a handshake. Furthermore, if the students refused to shake hands again "the sanctions called for by law will be applied," which included a possible fine of up to 5,000 dollars.

This uproar in Switzerland, where many people were enraged at the original exemption granted to the Muslim boys, did not end after that exemption was itself overturned by the local Educational Department. The Swiss understood quite clearly that this was more than a little quarrel over handshakes; it was a fight over whether the Swiss would be masters in their own house, or whether they would be forced to yield, by the granting of special treatment, to the Islamic view of the proper relations between the sexes. It is one battle - small but to the Swiss significant - between o'erweening Muslim immigrants and the indigenous Swiss.

Naturally, once the exemption was withdrawn, all hell broke loose among Muslims in Switzerland. The Islamic Central Council of Switzerland, instead of yielding quietly to the Swiss decision to uphold the handshaking custom, criticized the ruling in hysterical terms, claiming that the enforcement of the handshaking is "totalitarian" (!) because its intent is to "forbid religious people from meeting their obligations to God." That, of course, was never the "intent" of the long-standing handshaking custom, which was a nearly-universal custom in Switzerland, and in schools had to do only with encouraging the right classroom atmosphere of mutual respect between instructor and pupil, of which the handshake was one aspect. The Swiss formulation of the problem - weighing competing claims - will be familiar to Americans versed in Constitutional adjudication. In this case "the public interest with respect to equality" of the sexes and the "integration of foreigners" (who are expected to adopt Swiss ways, not force the Swiss to exempt them from some of those ways) were weighed against the "religious obligations to God" of Muslims, and the former interests found to outweigh the latter.

What this case shows is that even at the smallest and seemingly inconsequential level, Muslims are challenging the laws and customs of the Infidels among whom they have been allowed to settle. Each little victory, or defeat, will determine whether Muslims will truly integrate into a Western society or, instead, refashion that society to meet Muslim requirements. The handshake has been upheld and, what's more, a stiff fine now will be imposed on those who continue to refuse to shake hands with a female teacher. This is a heartening sign of non-surrender by the Swiss. But the challenges of the Muslims within Europe to the laws and customs of the indigenes have no logical end and will not stop. And the greater the number of Muslims allowed to settle in Europe, the stronger and more frequent their challenges will be. They are attempting not to integrate, but rather to create, for now, a second, parallel society, and eventually, through sheer force of numbers from both migration and by outbreeding the Infidels, to fashion not a parallel society but one society - now dominated by Muslims.

The Swiss handshaking dispute has received some, but not enough, press attention. Presumably, it's deemed too inconsequential a matter to bother with. But the Swiss know better. And so should we.

There's an old Scottish saying that in one variant reads: "Many a little makes a mickle." That is, the accumulation of many little things leads to one big thing. That's what's happening in Europe today. This was one victory for the side of sanity. There will need to be a great many more.

[Emiliano]

That's an interesting Swiss custom, and I like the idea of the culture of mutual respect between students and teachers in the classroom. It's also interesting to me that there is a $5,000 fine for students unwilling to shake their teachers hands.

I know that this is part of a much larger issue about Muslims in Europe and their ability to assimilate into the cultures of those countries. But as an educator, I feel like this could have been much better handled. Rather than avoiding to address the issue by allowing the teenagers to be excluded from the custom as they initially did, or threatening to fine them for their perceived lack of respect for their teachers and customs of the country they are now living in - the teachers, administrators, and local community should have used this as an opportunity for a conversation and as a learning experience.

If this were a situation that I was in charge of handling, I'd have asked the Swiss teachers to explain that mutual respect is integral to Swiss classroom culture, and that in Switzerland, that is displayed through the handshake. It seems like the emphasis should be on the display of respect, not on the handshake.

However, forcing students to show respect in ways they are uncomfortable with, under threat of a $5,000 fine or suspension of the family's citizenship process, is not going to inspire real respect. Forcing them to shake hands is not forcing them to show respect. It is simply forcing them to shake hands. Also the custom is about mutual respect between student and teacher. I don't see how forcing the teenagers to shake hands shows any respect for them as individuals either.

Another way of dealing with this, that could have actually inspired real respect, would have been to ask the students how they show respect to female elders without touch in their culture and their religion. Or to come up together with a way of doing so - maybe it's just a certain greeting or another action. The people in this situation are Syrian, and I don't know if it's acceptable in their culture, but I have a friend who is from Iran, and she puts her hand on her heart and says hello when she greets me or other men.

It could start a conversation about how people of different religions and cultures have different behaviors and norms. It's not just in Islam that touch between unrelated men and women isn't allowed, I know Orthodox Jewish communities here in NYC also follow that. Refusal to shake hands isn't necessarily a sign of disrespect, it's a sign of a cultural or religious difference. A real sign of honest, mutual respect would be to work together to find a way that both parties can comfortably show respect. Again, as an educator - and even more so as a human, I'd rather be shown an honest display of respect rather than a forced one with no real emotion behind it except the desire not to have to pay $5,000 in fines.


But again, this really isn't just about handshakes and respectful greetings between students and teachers l, is it? Is it really being accepting of Muslims if they are only accepted as long as they don't act Muslim? And if different European countries aren't willing to accept Muslims as Muslims, then that should be made more clear, and set into laws, and some sort of pathway to deport Muslims should be created. I think there have been precedents set for the removal of certain ethnic and religious groups deemed unable to assimilate or as a cultural threat in Europe before.

When it comes to things of this nature, I think it's best to be direct. That way everyone is on the same page and no one has any false illusions about the situation they're in.

[LONDONER]

Thank you for your interesting andf studied post Emiliano. My own opinion is that the boys have been given asylum by a friendly country and have been living in the country since 2001 and they or their parents would have known of the custom before they joined the school.

Were I to live in Syria I would be expected to defer to Syrian customs.

[JohnMusic]

Being forced to shake someones hand as a form of respect probably does the opposite. That is my opinion.

[TwisttheLeaf]

I think if they were taken by surprise by the custom, that would be one thing. But they weren't. They were fully aware. So if the customs of the country weren't something they could agree with, they shouldn't have settled there.

Same way if someone doesn't agree with the policies of a school, they shouldn't move into that school district (or should arrange for their children to be schooled elsewhere).