To touch or not to touch

by Ibn Anwar

In the clip, you can see a woman representing the racist cult called 'Britain First' goading the Muslim Youtuber, Ali Dawah, to touch her hand. Although Ali Dawah, for reasons best known to him, refuses to reciprocate her rather morbid desire to be touched by him, she sallies forth and brandishes her hand, provoking the poor Muslim Youtuber to touch her. Watching the scene, one cannot help but wonder if her behaviour is a projection of her secret desire, perverse as it may be, to be touched by Ali Dawah for whom she has some irresistible attraction--an attraction that Ali Dawah clearly does not share. She claims to be a spokesperson for 'Britain First,' which is supposed to be an organisation dedicated to protecting "sacred British values," but one has to wonder what cave she must have crawled out of because no sane Briton hounds random strangers with compulsive commands to be touched, even if it were for a handshake, in such crude a manner bordering on molestation. Nobody goes around demanding for a handshake. Supposedly the cult that she speaks for champions democratic values, but in what world is such behaviour as pressuring and compelling someone to touch oneself democratic? Britain is a land that favours freedom as one of its democratic values and if the woman believes in British democratic values, then her odd behaviour ought to be chastised as hypocritical because it impedes on Ali Dawah's free and democratic right not to touch her. Ali Dawah is perfectly within his democratic right to refuse to shake the hand of that antagonistic woman, who is clearly a very troubled individual.

Does Islam forbid shaking hands with women?

This is an issue that the juristic scholars of Islam have debated for centuries. It is not wrong for a person to say that the majority of our scholars do indeed say that it is prohibited for men to come into physical contact or to touch a woman that is classified as 'non-mahram.' However, a minority of scholars, as pointed out by the Fatwa Centre of Egypt (Darul Ifta al-Misriyyah), do opine that it is permissible insofar that the act does not cause carnal arousal. The case of 'Umar al-Khattab shaking the hands of women that pledged allegiance to the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. whom the Prophet s.a.w. refused to touch, Abu Bakr r.a. shaking hands with an elderly woman during his khilafah and Bukhari's report of the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. permitting Umm Haram to comb his hair (which would have meant physical contact) are among the examples adduced by those scholars as a basis for permitting handshaking with women, provided that the act does not excite the state of arousal. The Shafi'i Egyptian fatwa centre concludes its fatwa on the issue by stating that there is no blame on those that choose to follow the minority position, especially in countries where non-Muslims are the majority so as to avoid calumny or fitnah. And Allah knows best.

The Biblical View
As far as the Bible is concerned, or at least, what the plain text says, a man touching a woman is frowned upon. This is taught in 1 Corinthians 7:1:

"Now concerning the things about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to touch a woman." (NASB)

Granted that the context of the above verse is discussing sexual relations and although some versions of the Bible, e.g., New International Version, English Standard Version, New Living Translation, do render the verse to mean the act of having sexual relations, the original Greek literally says what the New American Standard Bible (NASB) above is rendered to say. The key phrase in the verse is 'not to touch' and that is precisely what the Greek μὴ ἅπτεσθαι (me apthestai) means. The phrase for 'sexual relation' in Greek is σεξουαλικές σχέσεις and that is not what is found in the verse in question. The plain reading of the original Greek of 1 Corinthians 7:1 literally says that it is 'kalos' (good) for a man 'me apthestai' (not to touch) a 'gynaikos' (woman). 'Sexual relations,' as the choice rendering, in the case of some of those Bible versions are therefore interpretations rather than accurate translations of the verse.

In the footage, it is hard to miss that gigantic piece of white cross held by the woman which she waves around as if in preparation to battle Count Dracula. That cross is obviously a signifier of her religious affiliation with Christianity. That cross is obviously her way of saying, "I am fighting a crusade for Christianity!" Since she's such a wonderful Christian crusader with that mighty cross in hand, she must surely believe in the New Testament as the primary sacred text of her religion. And in that sacred text, we have demonstrated that her desire to have another man, a stranger, to touch her hand is disapproved and disavowed. It would appear that Ali Dawah's refusal to touch her falls squarely within the Biblical perspective and that makes him, apparently, more Christian than the Christian lady. The irony is really quite sad.