Manitoba medical student wins fourth appeal after being expelled for 'pro-gun and pro-life' Facebook posts - "A Manitoba medical student who was expelled after failing to satisfactorily apologize for his controversial views on guns and abortion has been granted a new adjudication of his expulsion. Rafael Zaki, a Coptic Orthodox student at the University of Manitoba who was supposed to graduate in 2022, posted three items on his Facebook page in February 2019. He was expelled in August 2019. One year later, after losing two appeals within the university system, Zaki asked Manitoba’s Court of Queen’s Bench to review the decision made by the University Discipline Committee. Zaki said he was expelled “for holding conscientious and religious beliefs that abortion is harmful.” The university, meanwhile, said that it must ensure professional behaviour and attitudes in order for its students to become doctors, and that Zaki was expelled for failing to reach that standard “even after numerous attempts … to assist (him) in remediating his conduct.” Ken Champagne, the provincial judge in the case, found that there was a perception of bias and the university discipline system had failed to consider Zaki’s Charter rights to freedom of expression... Carol Crosson, Zaki’s lawyer, said the family had emigrated from Egypt because of concerns over freedom of religion. “They came here to find freedom, and then their son went through this at the university”"
Why support for Malays must stay - "It is important that society and the Government continue to give extra support to the Malay community, and pressure from other communities for equal privileges should be resisted, said Law and Foreign Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam. In an interview with Malay-language newspaper Berita Harian, published on Saturday, he expressed his "strong view" that the long-standing approach of giving special treatment to Malays must carry on... questions have since been asked about what privileges Malays enjoy. He listed several examples of how the community gets assistance, and said this special support comes not just financially but also through structural ways - through policies and programmes in accordance with the law. Since the 1970s, land for mosques has been allotted without tender and the land price set at affordable rates, to ensure Muslims have modern mosques as Singapore develops. The Government also helps Malay tertiary students financially, and the community has its own special courts - syariah courts, whose infrastructure and judges are Government-funded."
Chinese privilege!
Idea of Chinese privilege is 'intellectual scarcity': S'porean panelist at IPS forum - "Moderator Mathew Mathews, a Principal Research Fellow and Head of Social Lab at IPS, brought up the topic of Chinese privilege within Singapore, and how the concept is an importation of ideas from the United States... "I happen to have actually been looking at the comparison of the Singapore health system and the American health system. Singapore spends 25 per cent less than the American system, and people are bringing ideas from the American health system into Singapore when Singapore is so much better. People in the U.S. would just be in heaven to have Singapore's system of health." To continue, Fung thinks that the idea of white privilege in the U.S. translating to Chinese privilege in Singapore is not just a shortcut, but also a "lack of thinking."... "That these things should be argued out in the intellectual scarcity of an idea like Chinese privilege, just using that as an argumentation idea that you brought from another country that doesn't apply, is ridiculous."... Goh, who is the deputy head of sociology in the National University of Singapore (NUS), said that the concept of Chinese privilege has been “under-discussed and under-specified” within the context of Singapore’s culture and history. “It cannot be something that is just simply equivalent to white privilege, because America had a very different history when it comes to racial relations, as compared to Singapore,” the associate professor said, with the response framed within a previous discussion on ethnic discrimination in the U.S. Goh then brought up instances where people discussed Chinese privilege by citing structural and institutional racism, as well as racial prejudice stereotyping, and discrimination. On this, he argued that Chinese privilege is not “useful” as a concept. Goh explained: "When we bring in something like ‘Chinese privilege’ we’re bringing in the history of another society without being critical."... The direct importation of ideas brings with it its own set of problems. Goh added: "I worry that with the importation of ideas, we do not focus enough on our own previous thinkers and indigenous intellectual traditions." The nuanced argument was supported by Alami Musa, who added that such a concept should not be generalised."
Trust the experts. Except on issues of social justice, in which case trust minorities who spout the liberal line
'Chinese privilege not as appropriate to use in S'pore' says Chan Heng Chee, but minorities face 'institutional racism' - ""But I want to provide the perspective that actually a segment of the Chinese population in Singapore disagree that there is such a thing as Chinese privilege. They remember that at the birth of our nation, the Chinese community was told by Lee Kuan Yew that they should set aside their claims for majoritarianism, and accept that Chinese would not be the national language even though they were the overwhelming majority population." Chan also mentioned the merger of Nanyang University and the University of Singapore in the 1980s, which created the National University of Singapore. However, she said this was "painful" for the Chinese-educated community, as the students had to attend classes in English, a language they were not equipped to handle at a tertiary level. This led to many students dropping out, and they were angry and unhappy with the government"... Panellist Mei Lin Fung, co-founder of People-Centered Internet, said that the term was an example of "intellectual scarcity." Another panellist, Joel Kotkin, Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University in the U.S, said the idea of white privilege is "absurd" because there are many poor white people, and said there are poor Chinese people in Singapore too."
The Dangerous Influence of “Chinese Privilege” in Singapore - "No matter what you believe about racism in Singapore, it’s indisputable that we’re doing much better relative to the rest of the world. These inconvenient facts are widely substantiated in empirical studies that have attempted to measure “racial discrimination” across countries. Yet they are consistently ignored or downplayed by the Chinese Privilege crowd. According to the Global Creativity Index 2015, Singapore ranks 6th in highest number of natives when questioned on “how nations stack up on the openness to and acceptance of racial and ethnic minorities”. In the Legatum Prosperity Index of 2015, Singapore ranks at number 1 (yes, one) in the category of “tolerance of ethnic minorities”, while Egypt comes out last... This reality didn’t come about by chance. Why are none of the achievements of Singapore’s racial relations ever celebrated, mentioned or appreciated by local race activists? If the goal is to cherry-pick and pinpoint isolated instances of explicit or casual racism, and then proceed to extrapolate that to extravagant claims of widespread systemic racism, you can easily achieve that in any community of a thousand people — let alone a city-state of 5 million people. Unfortunately, that is the kind of partisan activist hackery that passes for a “productive conversation on race” these days, rather than one that constructively and genuinely advances discussions around racial relations. There are a few often cited policy examples that supposedly “proves” systemic racism and Chinese Privilege in Singapore. The most popularly mentioned is racial discrimination against Malays in the Singapore Armed Forces. Yet, racial discrimination in the armed forces doesn’t apply to other minority groups in the army, most notably Indian minorities. Therefore, “Chinese Privilege”, by definition, cannot be true. At best, it is “Chinese, plus sometimes Indian and other minority groups Privilege”. Not the most snazzy term to embark on a racial justice crusade with... Another prominently mentioned policy as “evidence” of institutional racism is the Ethnic Integration Policy (EIP), which mandates racial quotas in public housing where the majority of Singaporeans live... The removal of the EIP would move Singapore’s racial relations in the philosophical direction that the most hardened racists among us would prefer—the segregation of people based on the colour of their skin... Our Group Representation Constituency (GRC) system has a racial diversity quota to ensure minority representation in Parliament, and the last presidency was controversially reserved for a Malay candidate. The Presidential Council for Minority Rights was set up as a government body to safeguard minority interests by scrutinising laws... Strange policies for an allegedly racist government. Students of Singapore’s history will also be aware of the country’s past conflicts between the Chinese high schools and universities of the day and the early days of the PAP. In the 1970’s, the Chinese daily newspapers Sin Chew Jit Poh and Nanyang Siang Pau saw dozens of their staff arrested under the Internal Security Act because they “reacted brashly to the prime minister’s warning that it should not play up Chinese language issues.” In sum, if activists can point to one instance of discriminatory government policy to support their warped ideology, there are several more that blatantly contradicts it... The younger generation (millennials and Gen-Z) are being sold a patently false narrative that the political scales in Singapore are tipped against racial minorities, without any appreciation for the thorny history of Singapore’s development. The continued perpetuation of these overblown claims of “institutional racism” threatens to undermine the strong fabric of racial relations that Singapore currently enjoys. As the adage goes, repeat a lie long enough and it becomes true."
Reddit Censors Black Man For Having Wrong Opinion r - "On Reddit, a self-proclaimed black user utilizing a throwaway account recently attempted to post how they didn’t agree with the behaviors and actions of black lives matter. Explaining how not every black person thinks the same, but the loudest voices often shout down the more sensible ones. A fact proven by the admission by former CNN host Soledad O’Brien who was instructed by CNN to only have the right kind of blacks on.
'Charles Blow, she told me, (also a frequent guest) was ‘the right kind of Black’.'
After offering a legitimate perspective from the black community on /r/FreeSpeech he was promptly censored by the moderators. The same thing also occurred on /r/unpopularopinion and /r/Conservative. With the latter being not directly posted by him, but by someone who wanted to signal boost what he was saying... [source: imgur.com] Ironically at this juncture, One Angry Gamer, despite our reputation of being labeled as quite “intolerant”, “homophobic”, and a couple “isms” and “ists”, allows for more free expression of speech than a subreddit dedicated to freedom of speech. Don’t worry, as our black audience well knows, you don’t have to be the right kind of black to post below."
As a black man I feel Black Lives Matter are becoming bullies and are actually hurting the Black community by segregating us further create a racial divides. (Reddit archive)
Twitch Implements New Trust and Safety Council That Immediately Goes Full Racist and Sexist - "transgender activist and council member Steph Loehr went described plans to implement blatantly sexist and racist policies. Policies aimed at addressing imagined disparities between everyone else and white males. You know its oddly funny that the left says Nazism was wrong, but at every step claims white males are so superior to everyone else."
SJWs Dogpile Authors Who Refuse To Submit To #OwnVoices Sensitivity Readings - "In the literary fiction community they’ve been attempting to gatekeep out anyone who doesn’t align to their politically correct, Cultural Marxist views. One way of getting authors to bow lock, step and sync with the narrative is to have them bring on POCkers and LGBTQIA+ people to do “sensitivity readings” to ensure that “marginalized” groups are fairly represented in fictional works. The Intersectional Inquisition have been using a #OwnVoices hashtag on social media to encourage sensitivity readings, and any authors who don’t kowtow to their demands are dogpiled."
united states - How to handle requests for a race-based exam structure? - "he received students’ requests/suggestions, cosigned by presidents of two large student organizations, that:
The final exam should be cancelled for minority students (but remain the same for the rest of the students, i.e. minority students will do strictly less work); or
The final exam should be modified to contain only questions that relate to life experiences of marginalized minorities; or
Marginalized minorities will take an easier final exam.
None of these requests are realistic at least in the current semester. Indeed, imposing different grading standard by race is likely illegal too. So we can start with the premise that none of the requests can be granted. Yet, it seems dangerous to dismiss these requests completely, as they are backed by large student organizations."
Being Classically Liberal - Posts | Facebook - "What has years of identity politics gotten America? The worst race relations since the turn of the century."
Race Relations | Gallup Historical Trends - "Would you say relations between White and Black people are very god, somewhat good, somewhat bad or very bad?"
Grievance mongering is not supposed to make things better, but worse: because that increases the power of the grievance mongers
Man charged with vandalizing Catholic college’s cemetery - "A man painted swastikas and anti-Catholic language on gravestones at a cemetery at Providence College and assaulted a campus safety officer who tried to intervene, according to the school and city police. Keveon Gomera, 26, faces 15 counts of desecration of a grave and an assault charge for the alleged vandalism on the Catholic school’s campus"
Damn white supremacist!
A memory holed article was titled: "Police identify man charged with spray-painting swastikas on PC campus gravestones."
Meme - "What women have done to comics and video games, men should do to Lifetime movies. Be like "all my life I've been a fan of Lifetime movies. Directing one has always been my dream" and then make a movie about women with giant tits fighting aliens in Napoleonic Europe"
It’s now a crime to call someone a ‘leprechaun’ - "A man in Aberdeen has been fined £280 by a Scottish court after calling his ex-girlfriend’s new Irish partner a ‘leprechaun’. The insult was judged to have a ‘racial’ motivation. Terry Myers pleaded guilty... How long will it be until it is made a ‘racially aggravated’ offence to dress up as a leprechaun? When will references to the Welsh and sheep become criminal in character? Will we soon see the law protect Scots from accusations of having ginger hair?"
Wizards Ends Their Relationship with Terese Nielsen - "in 2018, people noticed that Nielsen had been following members of the alt-right and conspiracy theorists on Twitter. Those follows ranged from alt-right activists like Mike Cernovich and Jack Posobiec, to InfoWars—home of conspiracy theorist and Sandy Hook denier Alex Jones—and the white nationalist Stefan Molyneux. She was also found to have liked a number of racist tweets that spouted anti-Semitic theories and made memes about white power. When all of that was brought to light, she unfollowed many of those accounts and unliked the offending tweets. However, the controversy would not die down, and it resurfaced a year later in April 2019, at which time she issued a long statement on Twitter. “Being excommunicated from a community and ostracized by family for following my convictions is not new to me,” Nielsen wrote. “The Magic community has blessed me and taught me in a myriad of ways in the past 25 years…I embrace the fact that many different viewpoints can, do, and should co-exist. In these stressful times, it is my intent to navigate in harmony with my core values (beauty, compassion, love) to the best of my ability without any need or desire to stifle, censor or demean another for differently held viewpoints.”"
Even if you never say anything un-PC, you are not safe - if you are "tolerant" of "intolerance", you are also "intolerant". Ironically there're people who track these things to keep an eye of them; guess they need to set up new accounts to be safe. But then WotC also bowdlerised their "racist" cards
Meme - White people: "WTF! You've been living here for 1000s of years and you have no ships, roads, houses, bridges, farms, guns etc. -- Why?"
Black people: "Ya'll food ain't seasoned"
How American Jews view Israel - "Israel, the world’s only Jewish-majority country, is a subject of special concern to many Jews in the United States. Caring about Israel is “essential” to what being Jewish means to 45% of U.S. Jewish adults, and an additional 37% say it is “important, but not essential”"
So much for the claim that if you say a Jew has loyalty to Israel, it means you're supporting genocide because that trope is anti-Semitic
Should Hollywood rethink who plays Jews in movies and on TV? - "Does that matter? It does to comedian Sarah Silverman. On a September episode of her podcast, she pointed out what she sees as an irksome trend of non-Jews playing emphatically ethnic Jewish characters... Representation is important, agrees Kim Williams, president of the Casting Society of America. But, she adds, so are great performances. "There's that fine line of wanting to be as authentic as we can, but also wanting to be open to the creativity we can bring to a project," she says — meaning being open to casting a great non-Jewish actor as a great Jewish character. Even Silverman says a non-Jew was cast to play her own mother in an upcoming musical based on her memoir, The Bedwetter — because she was simply the best actor for the job."
Should Jews plays non-Jews onscreen?
Tony Shalhoub hits back at Sarah Silverman's 'Jewface' comments - "“I always feel that we’re actors,” the “Monk” star, 67, told Page Six at the premiere of “Mass.” “We were trained to — at least I was — to not play myself, to play characters and so it’s troubling to me that they’re limiting actors.” “I just don’t know,” he continued. “If we start to go down that road, I don’t know where it ends. Are people who are members of the Mafia, are they going to be upset that people who haven’t actually committed those types of crimes are playing those roles?"
UK actor faces 'relentless' abuse for playing Jewish character in BBC series - "British actor Eddie Marsan on Thursday responded to what he said was “relentless” abuse he has been facing online apparently for playing a Jewish character in the four-part “Ridley Road” TV series... Marsan shared screenshots of several tweets addressed to him, including one from a user who wrote: “Facts are facts Eddie, you are a crap actor and I’ll never watch shite with your Apartheid loving bake in it.” “Why does the BBC do so many programmes favouring the Zionists ‘return’ and so few favouring Palestinian’s Right of Return? Just asking”... Marsan has been outspoken against antisemitism on social media in the past. “Antisemitism gives the myth that it’s punching up to some mythical all-powerful Jewish elite… so quite often, young people are taken in by antisemitic tropes on social media,” Marsan said this month. “They don’t see it as racism, they see it as anti-capitalist, and they feel more inclined to support it.”"
Meme - Razib Khan @razibkhan: "over the past 5 years this has started happening...
white SJW friend: i apologize for the oppression you suffered, and want you to understand i own & acknowledge my privilege
me: [tldr;] i think i'm more advantaged than you. it's not all about you"
Ben Badejo @BenjaminBadejo (black): "During my first year at Harvard Law a classmate demanded that I admit that I was "at *imminent* risk of being killed by police officers" due to my color, and then another classmate explicitly said that it was a "betrayal" that I didn't agree, "given who [I] [am]." am"
Theo Jordan on Twitter - "When our military is focused on virtue signaling and releasing statements about Tucker Carlson, you know we are in a really really bad place. Meanwhile, China has initiated a masculinity program. And last month, the Army announced a new policy that will allow transgenders to wear lipstick and nail polish while in their fatigues. Because that's what we need to be a cohesive fighting force, right? DEI is a cancer to every institution it permeates."
ArabNews24.ca ‘I’m an intersectional cisgender Millennial woman of color’: CIA goes full woke in widely mocked promo video - "A recruitment ad for the Central Intelligence Agency featuring a smorgasbord of woke buzzwords has been ruthlessly mocked on social media, with many accusing the spy agency of using 'diversity' to airbrush its shady dealings. The CIA apparently wants Americans to know that despite its history of toppling democratically elected governments and operating torture ‘black sites’, it is still very much an equal opportunity employer. In a promotional video for the agency, an employee explains how she “used to struggle with imposter syndrome,” but later rejected the “patriarchal ideas” holding her back, realizing that she “earned her way in” to the agency... “I am a woman of color. I am a mom. I am a cisgender Millenial who has been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. I am intersectional but my existence is not a box-checking exercise,” the woman states as ambient string music plays in the background, coupled with footage of her walking around her office and doing other inspiring things. Describing herself as a “proud first-generation Latina and officer at CIA,” the woman explains that she won’t apologize for “intoxicating” people with her “brilliance.” In the ad she is shown wearing a t-shirt with a female gender symbol containing a raised fist... “‘My existence is not a box-checking exercise.’ As she then proceeds to tell the viewers each identity box she checks,” joked https://twitter.com/JimboFoster92/status/1389005458061549569 comment."
CamillePagliaQuotes on Twitter - "Viciously silencing opponents simply guarantees that when the backlash finally comes, it will take massively reactionary form. (Salon 8/4/1998)"
Meme - DecoloniseTheCurriculum.com @MrPranPatel: "The more I think about it the more I believe teaching standard English is racist.
Without challenging the status quo we end up falling into the trap of upholding the structures of inequity. Although we were attempting to give our pupils 'cultural capital to navigate the field. This is a socio-philo-political analysis."
Annals of Sharia: ‘Allah honored wives by instating the punishment of beatings’ - "That’s from the avuncular Muslim cleric Sa’d Arafat, from an interview on Al-Nas TV in Egypt...
Interviewer: Wife beating is a serious accusation [leveled against Islam]. Let us examine this matter bit by bit.
Sa’d Arafat: Allah honored wives by instating the punishment of beatings.
Interviewer: Honored them with beatings? How is this possible?
Sa’d Arafat: The prophet Muhammad said: “Don’t beat her in the face, and do not make her ugly.” See how she is honored. If the husband beats his wife, he must not beat her in the face. Even when he beats her, he must not curse her. This is incredible! He beats her in order to discipline her. In addition, there must not be more than ten beatings, and he must not break her bones, injure her, break her teeth, or poke her in the eye. There is a beating etiquette. If he beats to discipline her, he must not raise his hand high. He must beat her from chest level. All these things honor the woman. She is in need of discipline. How should the husband discipline her? Through admonishment. If she is not deterred, he should refuse to share the bed with her. If she is not repentant, he should beat her, but there are rules to the beating. It is forbidden to beat her in the face or make her ugly. When you beat her, you must not curse her. Islam forbids this.
Interviewer: With what should be beat her? With his bare hand? With a rod?
Sa’d Arafat: If he beats her, the beatings should not be hard, so that they do not leave a mark. He can beat her with a short rod. He must avoid beating her in the face or in places in the head where it hurts. The beatings should be on the body and should not come one right after the other. These are all choices made during the process, but beatings are allowed only as a last resort. […] The honoring of the wife in Islam is also evident in the fact that the punishment of beating is permissible in one case only: when she refuses to sleep with him.
Interviewer: When she refuses to sleep with him?
Sa’d Arafat: Yes, because where else could the husband go? He wants her, but she refuses…."
Meme - *beige V sign emoji* rosanna arquette @RoArquette: "I am white but I always choose a Black emoji, because black has always been beautiful to me since I was a child and I honor Black human beings ."
Kyrie Irving and Dave Chappelle are being used as Black ‘pawns’ on a white chessboard
Blacks who don't go along with the liberal agenda are pawns. And those who do are not, definitely
More than a third of white students lie about their race on college applications, survey finds - "81 percent of students who faked minority status did so to improve their chances of getting accepted. Fifty percent of students who lied said they did it to get minority-focused financial aid."
Weird how they don't know abvout White Privilege
Ayam Masak Merah without Gravy – Dino Kang accused of “blatant racism” - "Dan Kang found himself embroiled in controversy yet again when he posted a series of pictures deconstructing Ayam Masak Merah. In his Instagram post dated 30 January 2022, he gave advice so that, in his own words, “people don’t die early“. By zooming in and separating the gravy from the meat, he invited readers to look at how much oil and sugar went into preparing the chicken. In case his followers did not get the hint the first time, a few paragraphs down, he invites them to “look at the oil & gravy” again. He gave vivid descriptions too, of “artery-clogging” and “heart-stopping“... He ended his post with some unsolicited sagely advice: “Eat your food like it’s medicine. If not, you’ll be eating your medicine as food... A post on minority voices, which garnered more than 1,300 likes within a few hours, explains why this may be the case. Reference was also made to the cultural deficit theory. One Twitter user stated that this was “blatant racism” under the guise of health... This correspondent could not help but notice the parallels between what transpired here and the “Nasi Padang without Nasties” incident involving Ritual Cafe in 2021. Many took issue with how the cafe referred to ingredients as “nasties”. The dish was also priced exorbitantly, at 21 SGD... We did not know that there was such a thing as Muslim food, but we have amended the article to state what he tells us"
Of course, if no one says this sort of thing and minorities are unhealthier due to a poorer diet, this will also be proof of "racism"
Weird how the writer has never seen the term "Muslim food" used in Singapore
Sarah Silverman Dragged as Racist for Correcting Joy Reid: 'I Did Not Criticize Her Because She's Black' - "Reid had shared a CNN headline, which read, “DeSantis proposes a new civilian military force in Florida that he would control,” and commented, “So… y’all know this is fascisty bananas, right…?” The MSNBC host, however, omitted the fact that Florida would become the 23rd state in the United States to have such an organization. Silverman replied to Reid, stating, “Please read the article before you post this stuff you’re a news outlet. The truth has to matter.”... “One of the hosts of The View was like, ‘What hubris for Sarah Silverman to accuse a black woman of not reading,’ Oy! Jesus H, What the — I fucking, I surrender! Good grief. I don’t want any trouble”... Silverman went on to lament that much of the news is biased, asking, “Where do I get just the plain old news?” “I need a news outlet that’s just the facts, something that I can draw my own opinion — just facts, and then I draw my own opinion on it,” she said. “That would be so nice. I’d like to draw my own conclusions sometimes. I mean, I’m interested in other people’s thoughts, but, um, it can’t only be that.” “And good grief, you dare criticize anything in your own party, you’re the enemy,” Silverman continued. “And that kind of black and white thinking on both sides — it’s such a turn-off to me, that ‘you’re either with us or against us’ kind of vibe with no room for questions or critique — it feels very not liberal to me.”"
No non-blacks are allowed to criticise black people
Japan's refusal to recognise same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, court rules
People claim Singapore is a blend of East and West so it won't follow the West. Yet, even more Asian countries are following the same path
Dear non-Muslims, you don’t have to accommodate your Muslim friends this Ramadan. We’re responsible for ourselves. - "When I first came across the post, I immediately rolled my eyes. I mean, I appreciate the thought, but it's slightly patronising — like when someone continuously speaks slowly to an older person who can hear perfectly well. We, as Muslims, are aware of the struggles and demands of Ramadan, but we can manage. Let me reiterate: You don't have to be cautious around us... Ramadan is a month for Muslims to train our ability to adapt and endure challenges on our own. So we shouldn't expect or encourage others to make sacrifices and change their daily routines just for us. Fasting shouldn't be an opportunity for us to impose on others. That's simply unfair and selfish."
Shake and break: Muslim denied citizenship for female diss - "The unidentified man — a 40-year-old Lebanese doctor who arrived in Germany in 2002 — refuses to shake the hands of women for religious reasons. The court in Baden-Württemburg ruled that those declining to partake of handshakes due to a “fundamentalist conception of culture and values” because they view women as “a danger of sexual temptation” were rejecting “integration into German living conditions.”... At his hearing, the doctor argued that he had promised his wife not to shake hands with women. The court ruled that a handshake is a common nonverbal greeting and farewell that is independent of sex. It also stated that a handshake has legal bearing, symbolizing the conclusion of a contract. The court found that anyone who refuses to shake hands on gender-specific grounds is in violation of the equality enshrined in the German constitution. In 2018, neighboring nation Denmark passed legislation requiring a handshake with officials at naturalization ceremonies."