Muslims and porn/sex

[Rambo]

Pornography (Part 1): Disturbing Statistics for Muslim Countries

by Rafik Beekun
I was shocked recently to learn that internet surfers from Algiers had tried to access the site of a major child pornographic ring uncovered in Europe. Knowing of the huge costs of pornography to the USA and to U.S. businesses specifically, I decided to track down some statistics with respect to this ‘industry’ globally and with respect to Muslim countries. Here is what I found.
According to Google Trends, over all years for which data has been gathered, seven out of the top ten countries searching for the word ’sex’ on the internet are Muslim Countries. In order of viewing, these Muslim countries are : Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, Algeria, Morocco, Indonesia and Iran. Please view this link from Google Trends. If you cannot access Google Trends, I have saved a screen output in pdf format which you can view by clicking here. At the same time, it is important to note that, as of 2/10/07, no Muslim country was in the top ten countries searching for the word ‘porn’ on the internet.





Latest Global Pornography Statistics:

• Industry size: $57.8 billion worldwide, $12 billion in U.S. alone
• Number of pornography websites: Pornographic websites 4.2 million (12% of total websites)
• Pornographic pages: 372 million
• Daily pornographic search engine requests: 68 million (25% of total search engine requests)
• Daily pornographic emails: 2.5 billion (8% of total emails)
• Average daily pornographic emails/user: 4.5 per Internet user
• Monthly Pornographic downloads (Peer-to-peer): 1.5 billion (35% of all downloads)

Affecting Adults:

• 20% of men view pornography at work
• 13% of women view pornography at work
• 10% of adults have internet sexual addiction
• 47% Christians who said pornography is a major problem in the home

Affecting Business Productivity:

• 70 percent of all internet pornography traffic take place during the 9-to-5 workday.
• Nearly one out of three companies has terminated an employee for inappropriate web use.

Affecting Muslim Countries:

• According to Google Trends (2/10/07), Arabic, Turkish, Persian and Indonesian are 4 of the top languages in which the word “sex” has been searched for during all years for which data is available.
• Arranged in order within each country, here are some Muslim cities that led in the search for the word “sex” within specific countries are – Egypt: Giza; Saudi Arabia: Riyadh; Iran: Tehran; Jordan: Amman; Pakistan: Faisalabad; Indonesia: Bogor; Malaysia: Shah Alam;Nigeria: Ibadan; Algeria: Algiers; Mauritania: Nouakchott; Morocco: Casablanca; Tunisia: Tunis; and Turkey: Istanbul.

Business and Legal Consequences:

• According to CP80’s report, all of the Fortune 500 companies surveyed reported having formal computer usage policies in place, with eighty percent using a technology tool to filter and/or monitor their employees’ computer activities. These firewalls and other filtering programs to keep pornography out are expensive, intrusive and can sometimes interfere with legitimate computer activities.
• Internet porn introduces the issue of a hostile work environment relative to internet use. Whereas lewd jokes, e-mails or gestures or comments can cause a company legal difficulties, employees are going on websites that promote hate groups, pornography and illegal activities. Any of these activities can bring lawsuits upon a company.
• When employees view Internet pornography in the workplace, they use-up as bandwidth and computing resources.
• A Websense study reported that 70 percent of all internet porn traffic take place during the 9-to-5 workday. Billions of dollars in lost productivity are lost over millions of employees, businesses, states and countries.
• When an employee is fired for viewing Internet pornography at work, it affects both productivity and morale and it represents a loss in the training investment made by that business in that employee.
• Terminated employees can seek retribution against the company.
• When a business fires one or more employees for viewing Internet pornography, it can reflect poorly on the company: Why are its employees viewing pornography when they should be working?
• When an employee accesses a pornographic website, any number of viruses or other nasty computer codes may then be allowed into the culprit’s computer, and can then propagate to the whole business’s computer network.

To pre-empt internet pornography viewing in the workplace, several Fortune 500 companies have created an “acceptable use policy (AUP)” for internet usage, including a disclaimer about the dangers of the internet, a summary of appropriate and inappropriate uses of the internet (i.e., no personal commercial uses, no illegal copying, etc.), a statement about avoiding frivolous use (i.e., downloading large personal files, engaging in chat rooms, etc.) and a ‘no expectation of privacy’ statement that waives privacy rights over any materials sent or created using the company’s computer network.
Behavioral, Affective and Cognitive Consequences





According to the website of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families, addiction to pornography may have severe consequences on the individual, and these consequences tend to escalate in the following manner:

1. Addiction: Pornography provides a powerful sexual stimulant or aphrodisiac effect, followed by sexual release, most often through masturbation.
2. Escalation: Over time addicts require more explicit and deviant material to meet their sexual “needs.”
3. Desensitization: What was first perceived as gross, shocking and disturbing, in time becomes common and acceptable, and
4. Acting out sexually: There is an increasing tendency to act out behaviors viewed in pornography.

Consequences from an Islamic Perspective:
Allah, in Surah Al-An`aam (6: 151) in the Qu’ran says: “Do not even go near lewdness – whether overt or covert”. In Surah Al-A`raaf (7: 33), He states again: “Declare [O Prophet,] indeed my Lord has prohibited lewdness, whether overt or covert.” Then at another instance, in Surah Bani-Israeel (17: 32) the Qur’an says: “Do not even go near fornication”.
As a commentator on the website “Understanding Islam” points out, the first and third verses cited above reiterate the phrase: “Do not even go near”. This phrase implies that a person should not only try to avoid lewdness and/or fornication, but should also try to avoid all kinds of stimulants that might lead to lewdness and/or fornication.
In discussing pornography and Islam, the Islamic principles pertaining to halal and haram as presented by Yusuf al Qaradawi must be referred to. A first rule is that what is lawful is also wholesome and pure. What is not lawful can hurt us. For example, Islam has long discouraged Muslims from drinking alcohol. It is only recently that childbirth studies have indicated that any amount of alcohol consumed by a woman during pregnancy can affect the child in her womb, and lead to fetal alcohol syndrome and/or mental retardation. Implicitly, what is lawful is also moral, and what is unlawful is immoral. For example, adultery is both unlawful and immoral. A second rule is that what leads to an unlawful act is also unlawful. Hence, pornography is unlawful and immoral because it may lead to adultery or pre-marital sex.
Abdul Malik Mujahid has already discussed Islam’s stance with respect to pornography very well. Instead of repeating him, here are links to the articles that he has written:

Pornography (Part 1): Disturbing Statistics for Muslim Countries � The Islamic Workplace

^ kinda gives you an idea what kind of hypocritical society this is.

[Rhazes]

Not very suprising really. Any sexually repressed society that restricts co-ed interactions will have a large number of their males trying to vent in different deviant ways.

[Rambo]

^ so why do we repress? does it say in the quran to repress? many muslims even living in the west are repressed. something is seriously wrong with the muslim society. From what i have seen there are a lot of muslims who do all the haram stuff behind close doors, they just dont show it outside like non muslims do. But at the end what is the difference?

[Rhazes]

Yeah, at the end there is no difference. I'm considered to be a bit of kafir by most muslims since I don't practice anymore. But frankly what am I doing that different really? Most Muslims that judge me are doing pretty much the same 'haram' things as me, only at least I admit it and don't pretend to be something I'm not.

Lots of Muslim families are very sexually repressed. If you're Pakistani, Bengali or Arab you know how it is. I remember when we used to watch movies as a family we used to forward through all the bits that had 'bad things' like kissing or even hugging!

[SerenityJaan]

kissing and watching w/ teh family? i find that awkward..i think it has something to do w/ 'haya'. Once u get used to watching it comfertably w/ ur family..what barrier is it to watching ppl make out in public and not feel some form of shame...that, such actiosn should be done behind closed doors..not exposed to everyones eyes.

don't get me wrong, i don't believe it's wrong to be affectionate towards ur "SPOUSE" however, doing it openly is not what our Prophet (saw) advised us...

once ur comfertable w/ watching ppl kissing ..i beleive it can lead to beign comfertable to other things which otherwise, u wouldnt have been comfertable w/ if u ahd locked down on some form of modesty from the get-go

I think it's healthy to talk about these situations and be educated about it like adults...not think it's shameful..nothing to be repressed about, and i think it's healthy to get married..if fasting and other options are not working out for ones' drive'

[Kona_Silat]

Rhazes said

Yeah, at the end there is no difference. I'm considered to be a bit of kafir by most muslims since I don't practice anymore. But frankly what am I doing that different really? Most Muslims that judge me are doing pretty much the same 'haram' things as me, only at least I admit it and don't pretend to be something I'm not.

Lots of Muslim families are very sexually repressed. If you're Pakistani, Bengali or Arab you know how it is. I remember when we used to watch movies as a family we used to forward through all the bits that had 'bad things' like kissing or even hugging!

I think you are confusing cultural norms of different ethnic groups with Muslims. No offense but Indonesians and Malaysians tend to be more open about co-ed relationships than people from South Asia and some Arab nationalities. It is not uncommon for a hijabi from Indonesia to have a boyfriend, granted they may not "go all the way", but you won't find silly gender separation like having a barrier between men and women at mosques and where men have to speak to a woman behind some barrier that has been brought over from Desi land.

[Rambo]

^ having a boyfriend/girlfriend encourages you to have premarital sex, i am not supporting that idea either. There has to be a middle ground.

[Rhazes]

Kona_Silat said

I think you are confusing cultural norms of different ethnic groups with Muslims. No offense but Indonesians and Malaysians tend to be more open about co-ed relationships than people from South Asia and some Arab nationalities. It is not uncommon for a hijabi from Indonesia to have a boyfriend, granted they may not "go all the way", but you won't find silly gender separation like having a barrier between men and women at mosques and where men have to speak to a woman behind some barrier that has been brought over from Desi land.

Yeah I noticed that among Malays. I used to live in Singapore. Much more balanced and liberal type of Muslims. I think the sexual repression and segregation is a largely unhealthy frankly. This is the 21st century and men *will* find some way to discharge their sexual energy.

[Salika]

liberal balanced Muslims are the best

[iTz_NoT_Me_iTzZu]

rambo, I thought you were an apostate. what do you care about Muslims having pre-marital sex?

[Kona_Silat]

iTz_NoT_Me_iTzZu said

rambo, I thought you were an apostate. what do you care about Muslims having pre-marital sex?

You can take the Muslim out of the masjid but not the masjid out of the Muslim?

Rhazes said

Yeah I noticed that among Malays. I used to live in Singapore. Much more balanced and liberal type of Muslims. I think the sexual repression and segregation is a largely unhealthy frankly. This is the 21st century and men *will* find some way to discharge their sexual energy.

Not only Malays, but also African American Muslims, Bosniaks and Arabs in certain countries. It is just that in Pakistan and Bangladesh, something just went wrong there.

Rambo said

^ having a boyfriend/girlfriend encourages you to have premarital sex, i am not supporting that idea either. There has to be a middle ground.

Yes it does happens but not everyone who dates have sexual relations but considering your lack of experience with women it hard for you to fathom that thought.

[ChotooMotoo]

Kona_Silat said

Yes it does happens but not everyone who dates have sexual relations but considering your lack of experience with women it hard for you to fathom that thought.

rambo watches too many porno's. His entire concept of a dates is "Hi, how are you. I can haz intercourse now?" and before the women even tells you her last name, you're down to your underpants. 10 minutes later, everyone has finished showering, and the women is out the door. He has no comprehension of platonic relationships.

[Badshah]

ChotooMotoo said

rambo watches too many porno's. His entire concept of a dates is "Hi, how are you. I can haz intercourse now?" and before the women even tells you her last name, you're down to your underpants. 10 minutes later, everyone has finished showering, and the women is out the door. He has no comprehension of platonic relationships.

[Rambo]

ChotooMotoo said

rambo watches too many porno's. His entire concept of a dates is "Hi, how are you. I can haz intercourse now?" and before the women even tells you her last name, you're down to your underpants. 10 minutes later, everyone has finished showering, and the women is out the door. He has no comprehension of platonic relationships.

how did you know? were you the lady i did this with?

[ChotooMotoo]

Rambo said

how did you know? were you the lady i did this with?

your fat x-wife told me