Islam and Pornography

Despite all of the speculation about why Osama bin Laden had a porn stash, we have overlooked one possible explanation.

Perhaps bin Laden was simply applying an old adage to his situation. When in Pakistan do as the Pakistanis do. Perhaps he was just adapting to the local customs.

Google reports that Pakistan leads the world in porn searches. One assumes that they lead the world in per-capita porn consumption too.

Kelli Morgan reports: “So here's the irony: Google ranks Pakistan No. 1 in the world in searches for pornographic terms, outranking every other country in the world in searches per person for certain sex-related content.

“Pakistan is top dog in searches per-person for ‘horse sex’ since 2004, ‘donkey sex’ since 2007, ‘rape pictures’ between 2004 and 2009, ‘rape sex’ since 2004, ‘child sex’ between 2004 and 2007 and since 2009, ‘animal sex’ since 2004 and ‘dog sex’ since 2005, according to Google Trends and Google Insights, features of Google that generate data based on popular search terms.

“The country also is tops -- or has been No. 1 -- in searches for ‘sex,’ ‘camel sex,’ ‘rape video,’ ‘child sex video’ and some other searches that can't be printed here.” Link here.

Writing on The Daily Beast Asra Nomani fills out the picture. She explains that other Islamic countries, like Iran and Egypt, also rank high when it comes to pornophilia. No one is surprised to discover that Saudi Arabia also makes the list. Link here.

Clearly, Islam frowns on the use of pornography, and has little use for its cousin, masturbation.

Imams and other Islamic religious authorities have recognized the problem and have offered counsel about how to overcome pornoholism.

According to the Google statistics, Islamic pornoholics seem to have a taste for activities that I would class as extreme fetishes. I see this as a sign of pornoholism.

Men who are overexposed to erotic stimuli tend to be desensitized to more subtle stimuli. They often attempt to overcome this desensitization by seeking out more and more images of extreme sexual acts.

For the record, this is not the only path to extreme fetishes. Trauma too can cause a man to become fixated on a fetish. Yet, when we are talking about a national pastime, the chances are fairly good that we are dealing with the ravages of a bad habit, one that has become normative in the culture.

I doubt that very many of us are surprised to see these statistics. We all know that there is something radically wrong with the way these strictly Islamist cultures treat women, so it is not surprising that sexual desire has found an outlet that is more suited to adolescents.

These cultures have become notorious for oppressing and terrorizing women. They deprive women of the freedom to make the most elementary choices in life, and force them to wear outfits that de-sexualize and even de-face them. Husbands in these cultures are allowed to beat their wives and to ignore their wishes. One assumes that such wives have no real right to refuse spousal sexual advances. And we know that victims of sexual violence are often held responsible and even punished. The better to terrorize women....

None of this should be news. At the least, it seems fair to say that men in these extreme Muslim cultures are terrified of women. Or better, are terrified of being shamed by their women.

If they fear giving women a free choice of husbands, they must fear that these women would reject them. Thus, they will not even allow teenage girls to learn about their own desires through romantic courtship. Girls who transgress this rule are often murdered in what are falsely called "honor killings."

Basic Darwinian theory tells us that men imprison women because they fear that women will cheat on them and trick them into supporting children who are not their own.

On another level, men who belong to a culture that has missed out on modernity, and that cannot compete as providers for their wives and families, would not, normally, be considered desirable husbands.

This also explains the Islamist mania about destroying Western civilization. If Muslim women are tempted to marry Western men, the terrorists are saying that the greatest achievements of Western civilization are worthless and ultimately fragile. Was there a better symbol of Western success than the World Trade Center?

Men whose wives have been forced to marry them, forced to renounce romance, forced to stay married to them, and forced to have sex with them cannot feel a great deal of confidence in their manliness.

When faced with a phenomenon like Islamic pornophilia and pornoholism our culture provides a ready-made answer.

Asra Nomani quotes a professor from the University of North Carolina who offers that both Islam and pornography dehumanize women. Ergo, Islamic men turn on the porn because they are conditioned to see women dehumanized.

As with many culturally approved explanations, this one leaves much to be desired.

Allow me to offer a different explanation. Given the way these cultures treat women, you might imagine that Muslim men can have as much sex as they want.

What they cannot have are wives who desire them. Women may be forced to say Yes, but they cannot be forced to desire their husbands. For all I know the only way that these women can assert any measure of choice is by withholding all expressions of desire. 

Female sexual desire is a powerful aphrodisiac. For a normal man, its absence diminishes his ardor.
Perhaps, these men resort to pornography because that is the only place where they can find women who at least pretend to want them.