This is true, in case you were wondering. But seeing as Germany values gender equality and shaking hands is seen as a national everyday tradition, I see why they denied him citizenship. This was in 2015 btw and he had been living here since 2002.
Well I mean, if you move to a country you have to be expecting to adapt to the countries norms and traditions. If I go to Japan, I won't go around shaking hands but bow to greet people. If I go to a muslim country I'll make sure to not wear revealing clothes out of respect for the traditions. It's just common sense and respect, isn't it?
I mean, it’s nuanced. Some “traditions” or “values” are just- bigoted. I will say there is a line between visiting a country, and living in a country the same as living in a house and visiting one is different. Immigrants bring their own ways and when they become members of a country, they have the same rights to influence the culture and politics as anyone else. To me there are two keys here-
1. A country does have the right to say some things just aren’t acceptable. No one cares if you’re the last living Aztec and your culture and religion demand human sacrifice- almost no country in the world is going to let you keep that if you want to live there.
2. We aren’t talking about a belief that says that person can’t eat potatoes on a Tuesday or forbids them from watching soap operas or whatever. We are talking about a belief that marginalizes and divides people based on intrinsic and harmless states of existence.
So had Germany refused citizenship because this guy refused to worship a certain god, or because this person wore a certain head covering- of flat out say that’s generally wrong.this subject has come up before- paradox- discrimination against discrimination. Discriminating against a person on some arbitrary basis or difference or out of fear or ignorance etc. is just wrong in general. But refusing to abide people who discriminate is, at its core, not wrong. An inclusive society at our current level of technology, somewhat paradoxically, doesn’t have a lot of options to deal with intolerance except to not tolerate it.
*1- it is a slippery slope. We must be careful not to get so zealous on discrimination that we stop free thought or expression, or allow anti discrimination to become a tool of politics and targeted oppression used against those who dissent from societies views or commit the slightest offense.
*2- the dark humor that certain Americans could find this outrageous despite their stances on assimilation and immigration or differences in our own country is thick in the air.
@mialinay I ain't criticizing y'all, I believe that all nations have every right to decide if they'll let how many of whoever come in. Just trying to summarize and clarify.
The minimum entry level to get a German citizenship is to accept and follow the rules and guidelines in our constitution. Applicants have to take a test on that. If you wanna be part of a country that with every sentence in its constitution stands for equal treatment of all genders, religions and whatnot, you can't be expecting to be welcome if your not shaking a woman's hand because she's a woman.
1. A country does have the right to say some things just aren’t acceptable. No one cares if you’re the last living Aztec and your culture and religion demand human sacrifice- almost no country in the world is going to let you keep that if you want to live there.
2. We aren’t talking about a belief that says that person can’t eat potatoes on a Tuesday or forbids them from watching soap operas or whatever. We are talking about a belief that marginalizes and divides people based on intrinsic and harmless states of existence.