A Muslim imam who claims shaking hands with women is sexual harassment has described the awkward moment he mistakenly shook hands with a female Buddhist monk.
Sheikh Zaindaine Johnson, a surfer convert to Islam from Queensland, told a mosque about meeting other religious leaders at Parliament House in Brisbane.
The 44-year-old Sharia law-supporting imam, who now preaches at Logan south of Brisbane, described the ‘funny story’ of being put into a room.
Sheikh Zaindine Johnson says he was ‘blown away’shaking hands with female Buddhist monk
The Queensland imam said he didn’t realise a female Buddhist monk was a lady (stock image)
‘You know, I’m a pretty friendly guy. So I start shaking hands with all the religious leaders, talking to them,’ he said.
‘And then all of a sudden I’m shaking hands with the Buddhist and I said, ‘Hi, how are you, sir?’.
Animating his sermon, Sheikh Zainadine impersonated the Buddhist monk’s high-pitched voice, evoking laughter from his Friday night audience.
‘She says, ‘Good thank you.’ I’m like, what? It was a lady ‘cos she shaves her head and I didn’t realise it was a lady. I thought it was a man,’ he said.
‘I shook the hand and then when she answers, ‘Good thank you’.
‘I was just blown away. Wow, that just came from left field. I had no idea.’
Sheikh Zainadine Johnson tells of mistakenly shaking hands with a female Buddhist monk
Sheikh Zainadine Johnson has said shaking hands with women is ‘sexual harassment’ for him
The revelation he shook hands with a woman comes six weeks after he took a Facebook discussion it was sexual harassment to force Muslim men to shake hands with women.
‘Isn’t that sexual harassment? I mean really I feel sexually harassed when they try to force me,’ he said in August.
‘It’s my body and I should have the right to decide who can touch and who can’t.
‘You see it as innocent however there are many men who feel a whack on the bum is innocent . And that is classed as sexual harassment.’
Sheikh Johnson, a red-headed former bass guitarist with Brisbane rock band Grinder, became an imam at the Logan City Mosque in May after being sacked from his post on the Sunshine Coast.
The Muslim convert (pictured holding a sword) has some cutting remarks about a female monk