The First Lady in Indonesia-Big Deal?

"Salamat Datang."

I've been poking some fun at President Obama while on his boon-doggle trip to Asia. I guess I could again over the minor faux pas in Indonesia where the First lady shook hands with an Indonesian government minister who normally would not shake a woman's hand because he is a devout Muslim (which devout Muslim men don't do). But is it a big deal?

"It's a big f-----' deal!"


Actually, I don't think so.

I remember years ago when I was teaching English at Northern Virginia Community College after retiring from DEA. We had a woman teacher who was from Egypt. She was Muslim and wore the hijab. During a farewell picnic for her (she was returning to Egypt), I made the faux pas of starting to give her a farewell hug and kiss on the cheek. She cheerfully told me she couldn't do that because she was wearing a head scarf. I wasn't aware then of the cultural rule, but we shook hands instead.

Later at UCI, I was attending a talk a couple of years ago given by that dopey British "journalist"-turned activist, Yvonne Ridley. While I was sitting and waiting for the event to begin, I watched a young Muslim male student being introduced by a non-Muslim male student to his female friend, who stuck her hand out. Awkwardly, the Muslim student informed her that he just didn't shake hands (with women). Nothing personal, he said, he just didn't shake hands. I am now informed that Orthodox Jewish men don't do it either.

So what about the First Lady reaching out to shake hands with the Indonesian government official? If I wanted to nit-pick, I could say that someone in the State Department should have given her a cultural briefing before arriving in Indonesia, in which case, I could (once again) call on President Obama to fire the Secretary of State.

Yeah, you!

Or I could point out that the minister accepted the handshake, apparently enthusiastically, and probably acting with great diplomacy. Not so diplomatic was he afterward when he started tweeting that he was "forced to shake hands" with Mrs. Obama.

So how about we just forget about it?

Except for firing the Secretary of State, of course.

Yeah, you!