A man was denied the status of citizenship as he refused to shake hands during the Danish citizenship ceremony, said a Copenhagen official.
The incident is reported concerning a new citizenship law in 2018, that requires shaking hands as part of the naturalization procedure. New citizens must shake hands with the opposite sex in a ceremony.
A Pakistani member of the Copenhagen city council, Badar Shah stated that he could not get citizenship as he refused to shake hands at the ceremony at Copenhagen city hall.
The man who denied the process of naturalization can get citizenship if he decides to change his mind within two years and shake hands with officials at the handshaking ceremony.
The mayor of Aabenraa opposed the handshaking ceremony saying the event reminds him of the Nazi era.
The law has been criticized earlier, as it opposes the principle of religious freedom. Mostly, Jews and Muslims avoid shaking hands with the opposite gender.
However, the government holds that the process of shaking hands is vital in Danish culture and one who is against this cannot be a Danish citizen.
The immigration minister Inger Stolberg said, “If you don’t shake hands, you don’t understand what it means to be Danish, because in Denmark we have equality and that is something generations before we fought to achieve”.–Worldwide News