A prominent Egyptian cleric has accused the Muslim Brotherhood of sanctioning 'anal jihad' for Islamic militants who are fighting in locations thousands of miles from their wives.

In his televised comments, which were broadcast by the al-Tahrir channel, the preacher Mazhar Shahin said the Muslim fighters are being authorised to freely practice homosexuality under the pretext of waging "jihad in the name of Allah."

The idea was compared with 'sex jihad' - where women are either kidnapped and forced to have intercourse or females who offer themselves to the fighters who are waging jihad. However, the Islamic cleric say the Muslim Brotherhood holy men's approval of homosexual acts is a "catastrophe".

According to the English translation of his remarks in a report on the Middle East Media Research Institute, preacher Shahin said: "We have recently heard of a new kind of jihad, called 'anal jihad'. Do you know what that is? They practice homosexuality with one another, thinking, wrongly, that this constitutes jihad for the sake of Allah."

He added: "The [Muslim Brotherhood] is a bunch of hopeless and desperate peddlers who have reached a state of foolishness, stupidity, filth, and so on – to the highest imaginable degree. This catastrophe – this 'anal jihad' – is proof of this. ... Now we are hearing about anal jihad, in which two men are permitted to perform this great sin – God forbid – with one another, because they are away from home and cannot have sex with their wives."