MEDIA CORSICA
The Pornographic Tsunami
Par Kamel BEN SALEM*
The resulting problems of the spread of pornography are increasingly emerging in some European countries including France. More than 210,000 victims have been identified since the last century, of which minors are the first to be affected by this pandemic.
This position paper summarizes my opinion from the Islamic point of view on this serious problem, which leads me to ask myself numerous questions in relation to the prohibition of marriages of priests and bishops in the Catholic church. This decision, which prohibits bishops from having a normal family life, is, in my opinion, one of the causes that led to this alarming practice, which is against Church values.
Since the end of the 20th century, the Catholic Church has faced the revelation of numerous cases of sexual abuse of minors committed by priests, religious or lay people on ecclesial mission in different continents. Some of these cases have been brought to justice, but others have been time-barred, often because they have been covered up or covered up by the ecclesiastical hierarchy. The bishops of France, meeting in Lourdes, decided, Friday, November 5, 2021, to “recognize the institutional responsibility of the Church in the sexual violence suffered by thousands of people and the “systemic dimension” of these crimes.
Obviously, pornography is a powerful sexual exciter and therefore an incitement to pedophilia. According to François Billot de Lochner, founder of the "Stop porn" association, who has been involved for many years in the fight against this scourge, "Pornography is a complex system of representations, communications and exhibitions having aims to unleash people's primary sexual drives and break down the most elementary moral locks. While it has experienced strong development over the past few centuries, it has become over the past fifty years the alpha and omega of thought and the action of a significant part of the political and media elites.
In this context, I would like to put forward some ideas related to the Islamic tradition and which could contribute to the fight against this phenomenon of sexual abuse. Indeed, according to the words of a reporter of the hadiths of Prophet Muhammad, a young man had gone to the Prophet Muhammad and had said to him (summarized extracts):
“O Messenger of God! Allow me to commit fornication”
The Prophet said to him: “Come and sit down. Would you like this for your mother?
"No, I swear by God..."
It's the same for the others. They don't like it for their mothers. Would you like this for your daughter?
"No, I swear by God..."
It's the same for the others. They don't like it for their daughters. Would you like this for your sister?
"No, I swear by God..."
It's the same for the others. They don't like it for their sisters. Would you like this for your paternal aunt?
"No, I swear by God..."
It's the same for the others. They do not like it for their paternal aunts. Would you like this for your maternal aunt ?
"No, I swear by God..."
It's the same for the others. They don't like it for their maternal aunts.
Then the prophet laid his hand on the young man and prayed to God for him, saying: Oh God forgive his sin, purify his heart and preserve his private parts.
From that moment on, says the reporter, the young man never bothered [all this] again.
From this hadith we can learn a very important lesson, namely, that to keep someone away from this kind of turpitude, it is first necessary to sensitize him and awaken his conscience. This is part of the therapeutic genius of the Prophet and it is, in my opinion, this type of strategy that must be adopted to fight against the scourge of pornography..
Thus, to obtain an optimal result in the anti-pornographic action, I think it would be useful to try to emphasize this therapy in the first place. It would also be necessary that the speeches and the conferences of awareness are appropriate to the audience because, in my opinion, it is the most effective way to convince the general public of the good cause of such an action. The Prophet Muhammad said: "It was recommended to me to address people according to their degree of mental maturity.".
Still in the same context and according to the Muslim tradition, everything that leads to sin is a sin. This is how Islam requires women to be dressed in a decent way otherwise it is the door open to excess and turpitude.
Imam Muslim reports in his Sahih (Hadith no. 2128) that the Prophet said to his companions: “There are two categories of people in hell that I have never seen before: People who have whips like the tails of cows with which they beat people (1) and women dressed, but who are actually naked (2), writhing their bodies provocatively, their heads wrapped in turbans like the ornate hump of a camel. ˮ
(1) We understand here without ambiguity that these are the torturers of totalitarian regimes who demonstrate injustice.
(2) i.e. that they are perceived as naked despite being dressed, either because they wear transparent or tight clothes that let the shape of the different organs of the body show through, or clothes that are too short that show the private parts like the top of the chest, the shoulders, the forearms, the lower legs… This dress is currently commonplace in certain countries..
What was reported in the previous Hadith is also confirmed in the Quranic text :
- Surah 24 verse: 19
“Those who love turpitude to spread among believers will have a painful retribution, both here and in the hereafter”
I find it unfortunate that in Europe certain mass media see things upside down. This is how the women (cursed by God) cited in the previous Hadith are presented as modern civilized and open-minded, while veiled women are described as obscurantists. It is these same mass media that have served as a catalyst for the wave of Islamophobia in Europe, to the point that young girls have been expelled from schools and high schools just because they did not choose indecency and yet their outfits do not differ from those of the sisters in the church. In this regard, I invite you to read the article published by the “BBC News”:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3149588.stm
It is unfortunate that the Pornos-Pro always put forward to the general public the thesis that everyone is free to do what they want with their body, like those who claim to be free to drink alcohol (contrary to the religion instructions), once drunk, they can be the cause of serious accidents that kill or maim other fellow citizens.
I read, in the newspaper “le Monde”, an article which draws attention to the dangers that alcohol consumption represents for health by emphasizing that "Alcohol consumption is not recommended, whatever the type of alcoholic drink (wine, beer, spirits, etc.)" Please see :
Please also see the media release entitled : Alcohol Causes Cancer. What Are We Going To Do About It?:
https://movendi.ngo/media-release/alcohol-causes-cancer-what-are-we-going-to-do-about-it/
The reader may wonder why I refer to the consumption of alcoholic beverages. The answer is simple: it is alcoholic beverages that are the source of all kinds of crimes and all types of turpitude. Statistical studies show that almost all sexual crimes are linked to the consumption of alcoholic beverages and it is for this reason that the Prophet of Islam called wine "the mother of turpitude”.
It should be noted that at the beginning of the 20th century, the law of prohibition in the United States had prohibited the manufacture, transport, sale, import and export of alcoholic beverages. Unfortunately, the corruption lobbies intervened to repeal this law. Please see :
https://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/prohibition/
The question that arises is the following: can we leave everyone free to act even if they contribute to the destruction of society as a whole? The following Hadith gives us the answer :
The Prophet said: "The example of one who upholds the Law of God and one who disobeys it is like the example of travelers who cast lots for their seats in a boat. Some of them got some seats upstairs and some downstairs. When the latter needed water, they had to go up to get it (and those upstairs are bothered), so they said, "Let's make a hole in our part of the boat (to access the water) and not disturb those above". So if the people above let those below do what they suggested, everyone will perish, but if they prevent them, everyone will be saved.
The strategy for combating the scourge of pornography will be effective if it consists first of all in raising awareness among the general public, so that they become aware of the seriousness and the danger of this phenomenon. The fight against the pornographic tsunami is not an option, a possibility, an action to be carried out among others. This is a priority fight, because it is fundamental: the surge of pornography is indeed part of a project for the complete destruction of the person, the family and society as a whole. This requires a joint mobilization of public and private actors. We must also sue the creators and broadcasters of pornographic content to save society from this danger. This constitutes, in my opinion, the essential of the Islamic discourse to bring the perverse minds to reason.
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"Wisdom is the object of the Believer's search, he takes it where he finds it" (tradition of the Prophet Muhammad)
* Professor of Data analysis at the Department of Computer Science at the Faculty of Science, Tunis, 2092 El Manar II - Tunisia ; (E-mail : kamel.bensalem@fst.rnu.tn)