SWITZERLAND MUSLIM SWELTERING

Sam Daily Times : ''The Voice Of The Voiceless'' continues with all honors:

BUT While Muslims in Sweden may be rejoicing over the great decision, the prospects for no-handshakes Muslims are not looking quite so good in Switzerland.

The country's somewhat odd immigration rules require the town councils or cantons to vote on whether or not citizenship should be awarded to immigrants.

So it is in the small city of Lausanne, where a Muslim couple case came up for consideration.

In the interview the couple the couple refused to shake-hands with the opposite sex. The canton voted to reject their application for citizenship because they felt that their views revealed an inability to integrate into Swiss society.

They would never become Swiss citizens because they did not want to shake hands with the opposite gender.

Neither of these cases is new; in previous instances even applicants who refused to shake hands at  citizenship ceremonies have been excluded from citizenship.

Next to the veil, that ''tired'' piece of cloth too often used as metric of desire to integrate, the handshake has of late also become a litmus test.

Sidestepping laws against employment discrimination that prevent employers from firing women with headscarves or refusing to hire them, a simple outstreteched hand can, in the view of some, provide crucial insights into whether a prospective employee is the good kind or bad kind.

The good kind, needless to say, is the one who will smile and shake your hand.

Victory is hard to define in context where even the handshake has been afforded such significance.

The case of Farah Alhajeh, the Swedish woman who won, may seem like a victory in the individual sense of receiving damages and being vindicated.

In the collective sense, where the Swedish community as a whole is considered, the very existence of the case signifies just how wary employers have become of hiring Muslim.

The World Students Society admires and thanks author Rafia Zakaria. ''The Voice of the Voiceless''  publishing continues.