on cultural clashes

Here is the column to which I was reacting:
http://davidwarrenonline.com/index.php?artID=525

Here is the letter I sent to the paper but they didn't print:

Dear Editor,

I found it interesting that in his column “When cultures collide” (October 16, 2005), David Warren thought it necessary to include the information that Muslims had refused to shake the female Dutch Minister’s hand not out of disrespect but because they didn’t want to take the liberty of touching her. What nonsense. For any action, one can concoct positive and negative reasons why the action was taken. If someone yells at me when I cut them off in traffic, one could equally say they were merely trying to warn me of the hazardous consequences of my actions.

To be fair, Muslims aren’t the only culture that thinks women are “unclean” at certain times of the month. But there certainly seems to be a lot of bending over backwards to be politically correct around them. I think we owe it to ourselves to speak the truth and not tiptoe about for fear of offending people whose values are different from ours. When you think about it, they do not seem to be concerned with offending our values.