Salafi Sex Scandals Rock Egypt

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.

Sheikh Ali Wanis: Egyptian MP and model of Islamic morals and virtue.

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).

Still trying to maintain an aura of piety, Wanis even quoted the Koran in a statement meant to exonerate him as falsely accused: “O you who believe! If a wicked person comes to you with any news, ascertain the truth, lest you harm people unwittingly, and afterwards become full of repentance for what you have done” (Koran 49:6).

And what did his “ultraconservative” and “upright” Salafi colleagues do—they who constantly preach “morality,” the need for the hijab, and the segregation of the sexes”? Did they renounce him? Perhaps a bit of public whipping, to atone for his sins? Did they, in “righteous indignation,” do what two Egyptian brothers recently did when they thought their sister was being “immoral”—slaughter her, the mother, and aunt?…Continue reading for the answer.