Summary: For many people shaking hands when meeting someone is as routine as taking a breath. But for some Muslims shaking hands isnrsquo;t that easy. Many conservative Muslims believe unrelated men and women should never touch one another ndash; in Great Britain a Muslim asylum seeker lost a prize for volunteer work when he refused to shake a womanrsquo;s hand. But thatrsquo;s not to say every Muslim will refuse to shake the hand of someone of the opposite sex ndash; scholars from different schools of Islamic law all say different things. With some even saying no such prohibition exists. And this is not just about gender hellip; there are moments when even shaking the hand of someone of the same sex can pose a problem. For some traditional Shias any contact with any non-Muslims, male or female, makes the Muslim spiritually impure. After such contact a believer most go through ritual purification. There are even some Sunni for whom all non-Muslims, regardless of gender, are impure. But Sunnis typically donrsquo;t require ritual purification after touching non-Muslims.
