Muslim students' handshake refusal irks Swiss

A decision allowing two Muslim schoolboys to refuse to take part in the tradition of shaking hands with their female teacher has triggered controversy in Switzerland.

The two teenage boys were allowed to avoid greeting the teacher with a handshake at the school in Therwil, northern Switzerland, after saying it was against their Muslim faith to touch a woman outside their family.

The boys are brothers, aged 14 and 15, and one of them posted material on his Facebook page in support of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, the Basler Zeitung online newspaper reported.

The school’s decision has been met with criticism, with a teachers’ union calling it discrimination, the BBC reported. The school has since adjusted its rule to state the two children should not shake hands with men or women.

The local mayor, Reto Wolf, said townspeople were also upset.

“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,” he told the BBC.

And Switzerland’s justice minister, Simonetta Sommaruga, said handshakes are part of national culture and the school’s decision did not fit her view of integration.

Some Muslim organizations supported her. The Swiss Federation of Islamic Organizations said there is no reference in the Quran which justifies refusing to shake a female teacher’s hand, the BBC reported. But the Islamic Central Council of Switzerland argued that handshakes between men and women are not allowed.

Muslims make up about five percent of the population of the Alpine country, which banned the building of minarets in a 2009 referendum.