Shaking Hands

I was watching the late evening news bulletin "Tagesthemen" on the German TV channel ARD last night.

First three minutes on the US Presidential elections then on to Egypt (you may guess that there's a lot happening in Germany at the moment!).

Anyone who read my previous piece on Egypt (something that the media belatedly have latched on to) will realise that I was cautious (polite word) about the rise of "democracy" in Egypt given that the two leading parties there are more or less strongly Islamic.

Despite getting a President from the Muslim Brotherhood, and a parliament dominated by the same party and the even more dogmatic Salafists (the parliament is currently subject to legal challenge incidentally), there are one or two promising signs.

The new President, in the name of national unity, stated a couple of weeks ago that he wanted two Vice-Presidents, a woman and a Christian. Obviously to show to the world that Islamic dogmatism would not be the order of the day.

So, who knows? I remain rather sceptical - religion and politics do not mix well, and Islam is not known for making compromises, but anyway ....

The major reason that Egypt was on the news was that they were having their first visit by a leading American dignitary since "democracy" took over. Yes, Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, was in town.

Well when the USA is donating so much money to keep your fragile economy afloat (and most of the aid should now start working its way into the Egyptian economy and not into Hosni Mubarak's personal bank account), you do not want to upset them too much. So there we have Ms Clinton, a non-Muslim, not even wearing a headscarf - I suspect with a Salafist government that a burkha would have been expected (if they would even have deigned to have dealings with a woman), but I digress.

All in fact seemed in order except for the fact there would be no handshake at the end as a Muslim man cannot shake hands with a woman!

How do you spell "Nonsense"?

Ms Clinton was not there as a woman. She was there as a representative of the US government, which represents the American people. Regardless of their political allegiance (the same would have applied to Condoleeza Rice if she still held the role), regardless of their gender. It is not a question of personalities, it is a question of protocol. Of course the US government was already expecting this in advance, but a polite criticism should have been made about any such arrangement and such knowledge should be in the public domain.

Or if you want to get really nasty - shake hands, or we won't trust you, and we won't send you any money!

It also leads to the question of dealing with other world leaders. If Egypt wants to talk trade deals with Thailand, for example. Such a discussion could well benefit both countries. So if Thailand's Prime Minister, Ms Yingluck Shinawatra, arrives in Cairo to agree a trade deal, do you refuse to shake hands on it? Maybe show that you know a lot about common courtesies in Thailand and give her a wai instead? (Actually people in the Arab world should know a lot about the Shinawatra family. As Yingluck's brother, Thaksin, a former PM of Thailand, is wanted on corruption charges in Bangkok, he spends a lot of time in Dubai!).

I am not sure how the refusal to shake hands on a trade deal would go down in Thailand though.

And then there is the question of Germany. I am not sure how happy Angela Merkel would be with a foreign dignitary who refused to shake hands with her. To avoid any embarrassment she could send her Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle, instead.

This one could be interesting. Herr Westerwelle is an ultraconservative on economic issues, but is also openly Gay (what the US Republican Party would make of that combination ....). Would the Muslim President of a country shake hands with an openly Gay man? Given the Islamic principles on homosexuality? And if the President of that country refused to do so would that not cause embarrassment, at least, in terms of relationships with Germany.

Better try some diplomatic handling of the situation - i.e. wait till 2013 before getting into any serious attempts at relationships with Germany, when Herr Westerwelle's party will almost certainly not make up part of any German government coalition?