Egyptian MP Elhami Agina: Authorities Should Warn against Social Kissing to Prevent Diseases

Egyptian MP Elhami Agina recently said that the "foul custom" of greeting one another with kisses might transmit viruses and skin diseases and that he had raised a proposal for mosque preachers to warn against this. Government buildings should have stickers showing people shaking hands, he said, in a January 6 Faraeen TV interview.

Following are excerpts:

Elhami Agina: I believe in the saying "better safe than sorry," so I approached the minister of religious endowments yesterday, and told him that I believe that in order to prevent diseases, we should avoid any custom that leads to the spreading of some diseases, such as viruses and skin conditions. We should confront the bad custom of people kissing one another when they meet, because some diseases are transmitted when one face touches another.

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So I asked the minister of religious endowments to instruct the mosque preachers to make the people aware that skin diseases and viruses might be transmitted to healthy people through kisses.

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I am not banning kisses per se. I am just saying that is a foul custom, like smoking, lying, hypocrisy, and all those things. The mosque preachers should warn against those things.

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Just like every government building has stickers that say: "No smoking," there should be a sticker showing people shaking hands. By the way, there are hadiths by the Prophet warning against this.

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