Cleric says men can marry their own daughters if they are born out of wedlock

An Egyptian Salafist cleric Mazen Al-Sersawi has sparked outrage, after a video in which he suggested that Islam allows men to marry their illegitimate daughters went viral.
In the video, Al-Azhar lecturer cites prominent Muslim jurist Imam Al-Shafi’i as saying that illegitimate daughters are not officially attributed to their fathers and can thus be married to them.

Al-Sersawi explained that if a man has extramarital intercourse with a woman and impregnates her, he is allowed to marry his illegitimate daughter.
Attempting to rationalize the repulsive ruling, Al-Sersawi said that according to Al-Shafi’i, the girl is “not really his daughter” since she is the result of adultery.

“She is not his daughter according to Sharia. She is not officially attributed to him,” he said, adding that illegitimate daughters do not carry their fathers’ names.

Al-Sersawi teaches Hadith at the prestigious Egypt’s Al-Azhar University. The video was made in 2012 but has recently resurfaced online.
Earlier this year, another Egyptia cleric Muftah Mohammad Maarouf, said in televised debate the age for marrying should be low enough for new-born babies to be married off.
He said long as ‘no harm’ is done to the child, there is no problem ‘preventing her from getting married’ adding ‘in Islamic Sharia there is no set age for marriage when it comes to females’.