Poor Michelle! No touching allowed!
Michelle Obama's handshake with Indonesian minister sparks controversy; touching violated Muslim vow
BY Philip Caulfield
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, November 9th 2010, 2:48 PM
First lady Michelle Obama shakes hands with Indonesian Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring, as the Obamas arrived in Jakarta on Tuesday.
A conservative Muslim minister in Indonesia who is being criticized for shaking hands with Michelle Obama – and thus violating his pious claim that he avoids contact with women not related to him – blamed the exchange on the First Lady and said the touching was not his fault.
"I tried to prevent (being touched) with my hands but Mrs. Michelle held her hands too far toward me (so) we touched," Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring posted on Twitter, where he has more than 100,000 followers.
In the past, Sembiring has made a point of not touching women who are not related to him, and a female journalist in Indonesia said the minister once refused to shake her hand, The Associated Press reported.
Sembiring was one of several dignitaries in a receiving line that greeted President Barack Obama and Mrs. Obama after they arrived in Jakarta Tuesday.
Despite his statement, a video of the greeting posted on YouTube shows a smiling Sembiring seemingly eager to greet Mrs. Obama, clasping her hands without hesitation.
Sembiring's Twitter explanation came as footage of the welcome sparked chatter on Facebook and the blogs from Indonesians who scolded him for his hypocritical behavior.
The polite faux pas is the first misstep on an otherwise successful trip abroad for the First Lady. Over the weekend, Obama drew rave reviews from media in India for her enthusiastic appearances with groups of children in Mumbai and New Delhi.
This isn't the first time Sembiring has courted controversy, and Indonesians appear to be relishing the opportunity to take swipes at a figure who has lorded his moral authority over them in the past.
Last year, Sembiring said Indonesians' sins were responsible for the earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters that had recently struck the nation, and linked the destruction of those events to the country’s involvement in the production of pornographic videos, according to reports.
Earlier this year, Sembiring's Twitter account got him into trouble when he posted a joke about AIDS patients, according to The Jakarta Post.
With Wire News Services
[email protected]
Read more:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/11/09/2010-
Didn't Ms Obama touch Queen Elizabeth too!
We, Americans just love to feel things...
