An imam was arrested earlier this week in Saudi Arabia on charges of performing illicit sexual acts and operating a prostitution network from within a mosque, the Saudi media reported.

The imam, a Bangladeshi immigrant from the city of Afif, allegedly solicited Bangladeshi housekeepers to have sex with him inside his mosque and passed them on to another man for a fee – though it remains unclear whether these acts were performed inside the mosque’s four walls.

A video of his arrest, in which several women were seen inside the mosque, sent shockwaves across the kingdom’s mainstream and social media.

It was also reported that the local branch of the Ministry of Religions appointed a special investigator.

Many social media users cursed the imam and evidenced an anti-immigrant sentiment.

“This is what happens when you give immigrants too much credit,” Amer Alshamry tweeted.

https://twitter.com/Am1234ir/status/842798499473309696

Abdullah Alshami was reminded of another incident: “There was an Egyptian imam somewhere, who worked as a teacher, and after he stopped being a teacher because he sold his students advance copies of their exams, he started working as an imam and it emrged that he rented the women’s section in his mosque to single laborers.”

كان في امام مصري في السرة، بعد ما سرحوه من التدريس كان يبيع امتحانات، اشتغل امام، وتالي ياجر مصلى النساء سكن عزاب. — Dr.Abdullah Alshami (@bobjad) March 18, 2017

“And he is a volunteer muezzin, what will we say about all the other Bangladeshi workers,” Yazan Alyazani wrote. “The truth is that a Bangladeshi will always remain a Bangladeshi, but as soon as he arrives in the Gulf he turns into garbage.”

هذا البنغالي مؤذن فقيه مطوع

كيف بقية البنغاليين

حقيقة

يظل البنغالي بنغالي

حتى يصل الخليج فيصبح زنغالي https://t.co/Wuh2zlmT1X — يزن اليزني (@yazanyazani) March 18, 2017

Nawwara failed to grasp “How is a muezzin and imam from Bangladesh? What about those who were appointed by the government nad receive housing and a salary?”