SHAKY GROUND

Immigrant Doctor Who Refused to Shake Hands With Female German Bureaucrat Denied Citizenship

The Muslim immigrant’s refusal to shake hands with a woman was un-German, court says.

A German court has ruled that a distinguished Muslim physician should not be granted citizenship after he refused to shake hands with the woman presenting him with his naturalization certificate, because, he said, he had made a promise to his wife never to touch another woman. The judges said his action conflicted with German values of sexual equality and were “fundamentalist” and reflective of “a Salafist worldview.” The incident occurred in 2015 at a citizenship ceremony that was supposed to be a simple formality after the man had obtained the highest possible score in his citizenship test. The 40-year-old has an otherwise impeccable record of successful integration. He moved to the country as a language student in 2002 before qualifying as a doctor and then working his way up to the position of consultant physician at a hospital in southern Germany. The man now has the chance to dispute the ruling at the federal level, his last chance to have the decision overturned.