Salafi Sex Scandals

Sheikh Ali Wanis, an Egyptian parliament member and prominent figure in the Nour Party—the Salafi party which preaches a return to early Islam based on Muhammad’s practices—was recently caught in a "compromising position” with a female other than his legal spouse(s). According to official reports, police found a parked car on a dark farm road and went to investigate. They found a man, with the Salafi trademark beard, performing an "indecent act” with a "young girl,” who was later reported as being 19-years-old.

First, the Salafi MP told police that she was his fiancé; later, he claimed the teenage girl was his niece. One video clip shows Wanis immediately after he was arrested by police, imploring one of the officers not to report him.

Now, however, that the police did expose him, and now that it has been shown that the girl is neither his fiancé nor his niece—Wanis’ story has changed yet again: according to him, this was all a "set up” by the ruling military and its security apparatus, all meant to defame him and the Salafi Nour party (somewhat reminiscent of when another Salafi politician told police that his face was bandaged because he was injured in a carjacking—when in fact he had a cosmetic nose job). (...)