When I lived in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, I used to read a weekly magazine called Akhbar-e-Jehan. Transliterated, it means newspaper of the world. Anyway, it always had an entertaining Q&A section. People would write in with their questions and the author would provide the proper Islamic answers.

Muslims are told to pray five times a day. Before each prayer, they have to make sure that they are clean. This process is called wudu. Now, if a Muslim remains clean, then he doesn't have to perform wudu again for the next prayer of the day. So, what can make a Muslim unclean? That was one of the questions in the Q&A section.

Many reasons were provided. The ones I remember: using the washroom, touching a menstruating woman, and coming in contact with urine, feces, dogs or infidels. That's right. Non-muslims (at the same level of excrement) are so filthy that a simple touch, like a handshake, nullifies the physical cleanliness of a Muslim.

So, this is not a surprise:
The preacher, Kerim Ucar, was initially called in for a conversation over his sons’ involvement in brawls at the Platanus School in the Berlin district of Pankow. The female teacher tried to greet the father with a handshake, but Ucar rejected the gesture citing religious reasons. According to RBB24, the imam, a conservative Shiite who’s been living in Germany for 15 years, instead placed his hand on his heart, saying that was the highest possible way for him to greet a woman. The teacher however insisted on a handshake, claiming the imam should “adapt to the German culture.” The teacher doth have a sense of humor.
After Ucar repeatedly rejected the handshake, the teacher broke up the meeting, accusing the father of disrespect. “The action of the teacher was intended, it is based on prejudice. This is disrespect for the beliefs of others and xenophobia. We were discriminated [against] and insulted because of our religion. We also have been deeply hurt personally. And all this in front of our son,” Ucar is quoted as saying by the RBB24. The imam believes in a religion that considers every non-Muslim to be rotten and dirty. Then, turns around and says that he was disrespected.

(Originally posted at Isaac Schrödinger.)