Dr.Javed Jamil
By Dr Javed Jamil
Let BJP Government act according to its religious rather than corporate instincts! Let it prove that it truly stands for Indian culture, for the honour of men, women and children and for family values. Simply banning Child pornography is a ploy the merchants of Sex use when faced with opposition to minimise the damage. Pornography involving children may increase paedophilia but pornography as a whole is even more dangerous. Let the Government not fall in its trap and ban all forms of pornography without delay. Let the people come on roads to force the Government to take the necessary steps.
The feeling of joy over the Government’s decision to block pornographic sites proved temporary. Within hours, the Government had second thoughts, and clarified that the ban would only be “temporary” and that it does not intend to be “totalitarian” in its policy. It is not difficult to assume that the BJP and its Saffron Brigade have hardly any love for Hindu religion or Hindu culture. Their Hindutva is not aimed at bringing the religious morality to the country but to mobilise Hindu support by promoting hatred for Muslims. Corporate agenda, not the Hindutva, remains its primary concern. When BJP was in power last time, even them it did not do anything to block the spread of vices spread by Westernism through the corporate lobby. It is not expected to act any better this time. The forces of the merchandise of sex are so strong that BJP would neither face any opposition from other political parties including Congress nor would media support any ban on pornography.
It was about 15 years back when my NGO PEACE organised a seminar entitled, “In Search of a Comprehensive Solution for AIDS” at New Delhi in collaboration with National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), Government of India. One of the speakers was Late Mr K R Malkani, the Hindutva ideologue who was Vice President of BJP then. BJP Government was in power. Inviting him to speak, I had said the following:
“Mr Malkani! You are Vice President of BJP, and I am a Muslim. You know very well what the feelings of Muslims are for BJP. I share most of them. But I have some positive views too about your party. What I like about it is its insistence on Indian cultural and moral values. Hindus and Muslims are similar in the sense that we have faith in God. We both hate alcoholism, gambling, nudity, sex outside marriage and homosexuality. We both would not like our daughters roaming freely with boys in the nights. Why then do we keep fighting for Ayodhya Mandir-Babri Masjid and not against these vices?
“I am sorry to say that when your party came to power you forgot these moral and cultural values. You must know that the most dangerous thing for the current world is the commercialisation of sex, which is causing havoc at every level. It is killing human beings in huge numbers, devastating families, making children orphans. Why can’t your government ban prostitution, pornography and homosexuality? Why can’t you run a campaign for the strengthening of traditional marriage system, which is most health protective?”
Malkani spoke very well, supporting me in strongest possible words. I remember him calling “Times of India”, which had published a front page feature in support of homosexuality, “Times of Sodomy”. But the words never turned into action. We passed a strong resolution in the seminar urging the Government to take effective steps against commercialisation of sex, to effectively ban pornography and to ban prostitution with rehabilitation of prostitutes. The proceedings of the seminar were published with the support of NACO. We warned NACO that AIDS cannot be controlled by simply distributing condoms. But nothing changed. Since then more than 20 million people have been consumed by AIDS all over the world. Tens of millions will die in the next decade. The number in India may be close to 4 million. But the economic forces of the world will not allow any campaign against commercialisation of sex. They care more for dollars than for the lives.
There are now at least 40,000 porn sites on the World Wide Web and probably thousands more. No one has been able to count them all. There are in excess of 40,000 individual URLs containing child pornography, paedophilia and pro-paedophilia content. According to Nielson Net Ratings, 17.5 million surfers visited porn sites from their homes in January, a 40% increase compared with 4 months earlier. About 1.2 million children annually are exploited in child pornography and prostitution. 25 million Americans visit cyber-sex sites between 1-10 hours per week. Another 4.7 million visit in excess of 11 hours per week. Child molesters often use pornography to seduce their prey, to lower the inhibitions of the victim, and to serve as an instruction manual. Indians are also fast catching the trend not only in watching the porn sites but also producing pornographic material.
Prostitution and promiscuity are promoted by pornography. Pornography survives on prostitution, because if women are not available for acting in these films (in case prostitution is effectively banned) or for posing nude before the camera, it would automatically scale down. Pornography fans sexual frenzy. To alleviate promiscuity from society, pornography, in all its forms including eroticism, has to be effectively banned. No man or woman must be permitted to appear naked at any place other than in absolute privacy. Freedom of nakedness in public must be eschewed because its effects are not confined to the person appearing naked. It activates electrifying signals in the bodies of all the watchers intensifying their sexual appetite. Needless to say that nakedness breeds promiscuity; promiscuity leads to the commercialisation of sex, which invariably means the commercial exploitation of women and children; and the commercialisation of sex threatens the very survival of human beings as individual, as family and as society.
I would like to quote here from by recently published book, “Qur’anic Paradigms of Sciences & Society” (First Volume: Health):
“Pornography has no place in a civilised society. It is extremely detrimental to the normal functioning of individuals as well as families. It turns humans into beasts and normalises abnormal and perverse behaviour. It instigates the watchers to go sexually berserk and vent their sexual frenzies in whatever way they can. It denudes love making of any element of love and converts it into an unalloyed and unadulterated sex. Pornography is the most sophisticated arsenal in the armoury of the devil. Through it the devil takes full control of human sentiments that then refuse to distinguish between right and wrong. It kills men and women in a way that they do not even know it. It is a poison that begins to act instantly and continues to damage for long. It pulverises conscience and readies a man to rape. Acquaintances are often the targets. It bedevils men who feel inclined to have a lustful desire for even their mothers, sisters and daughters. It demonises even some women who respond favourably to advances of their friends. It makes them bare themselves and offer to whatever men desire from them. Under its effect, men and women tend to forget what the consequences of their actions would be. Pornography makes the people believe in the enjoyment of actions that in fact have nothing to enjoy. It makes men penetrate the animals. It makes one like one’s own sex more than the other. It even makes men believe that sex with children is more delightful than with adults. The wine of porn is much more deadly in effect than the wine of grapes. If the world has to be saved from the monster of uninhibited sex promoted by the merchants, pornography will have to be crushed at the first go.”
People argue and will continue to argue that it would be difficult to eradicate its menace for variety of reasons. This is only a ploy to keep things going. Once the decision is taken at the international level to uproot it, there are hundreds of ways to flush out the culprits. If even the Government of India decides not to let it continue, there is no reason why it will not succeed. It is always impossible to achieve a hundred per cent result; but if it is attacked with the ruthlessness needed to combat such a huge and colossal menace, there is no reason why it cannot be minimised.
The colossal transformation of social values that has taken place during the twentieth century all over the world, particularly in West, owes itself to the ever-increasing prospects of the commercialisation of sex. This may in fact be regarded as the most abominable, the most exploitative and the most threatening manifestation of economic fundamentalism. Sex in varying degrees is being used by a large number of newspapers, magazines, films and consumer industries for their own growth. The worst forms of course are prostitution and pornography that have become big industries. If mankind is to be saved from death, diseases, distress and destruction, an end will have to be brought to the commercialisation of sex without any further delay. This monster cannot be tolerated in a civilised society. It has to be chained at the earliest and permanently demolished. Steps have to be taken at the international level with an earnestness of purpose that requires all the states, organisations and men of morals to contribute in their respective ways. Only a concerted, well-organised and co-ordinated fight can successfully challenge the merchants of sex.
Let BJP Government act according to its religious rather than corporate instincts! Let it prove that it truly stands for Indian culture, for the honour of men, women and children and for family values. Simply banning Child pornography is a ploy the merchants of Sex use when faced with opposition to minimise the damage. Pornography involving children may increase paedophilia but pornography as a whole is even more dangerous. Let the Government not fall in its trap and ban all forms of pornography without delay. Let the people come on roads to force the Government to take the necessary steps.
- Dr Javed Jamil is doctor turned thinker and writer with over a dozen books including his latest, “Qur’anic Paradigms of Sciences & Society” (First Vol: Health), “Muslims Most Civilised, Yet Not Enough” and “Muslim Vision of Secular India: Destination & Road-map”. Other works include “The Devil of Economic Fundamentalism”, “The Essence of the Divine Verses”, “The Killer Sex”, “Islam means Peace”, “Islam and Family Planning”, and “Rediscovering the Universe”.