Don't 'raise a shoe' at Muhammed....

In the 'you can't make this stuff up' category...

An Iranian Shiite cleric has said he was jailed and lashed in Saudi Arabia last year after being arrested for "raising a shoe" at Prophet Mohammed's shrine, media reported on Saturday.

Yasser Khalili said he was arrested while on pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice and "jailed for 38 days, in handcuffs, and lashed," the conservative Qods newspaper reported.

In a separate interview with Iran's English language channel Press TV on Thursday the cleric said he had been arrested on July 27 and put on trial on September 3, 2010.

Khalili said he has been charged with "raising a shoe" at Prophet Mohammed's shrine.

"The judge had ordered for me to be whipped 150 times in public in the prophet's shrine. So one day they took me to the yard in prison and whipped me there," he said.

Khalili did not say when he had been freed and returned to Iran.

"It was clear that raising one's shoes was not a crime. It was clear there was no such crime, and it was made up and tailored to fit my case," he added, without elaborating.