Sexually Assaulting Islam: The Case of “Muslim” Porn
By Mikail Kahina
For many, the term “Muslim porn” is an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms, and an assault against the senses. According to most Muslims, the mere fact of performing in an adult film would place a person outside the fold of Islam. In fact, according to Sunni jurisprudence, a Muslim woman who fornicates with a non-Muslim is guilty of irtidad or apostasy and would be subjected to the death penalty. According to Sunni scholars, a non-Muslim man who has sex with a Muslim girl has committed a capital offence which merits execution. According to Shi‘ite fiqh, however, a Muslim woman who has intercourse with a non-Muslim would merely be a fasiqah, an open sinner, rather than a murtadah or an apostate. In the event that she was single, she would be administered one hundred lashes. In the case of adultery, she would be condemned to death by stoning. As for the non-Muslim man who has sex with her, Sunni scholars would give him the death penalty. In the case of Shi‘ite scholars, some would advocate execution while others say the punishment depends on whether the perpetrator was subject to a treaty with the Islamic state. Any such punishment, of course, could only be applied by a Muslim judge in an Islamic state which as created conditions of socio-economic justice. Muslim jurists generally agree that Islamic punishments cannot be applied extra-jurisdictionally. While Islamic law may seem severe on the subject, mercy is meant to prevail in many instances. In Iran, for example, upon the establishment of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini forgave all the sex workers in the country and found them husbands. The same merciful attitude must be taken towards women involved in prostitution and porn: they are victims of the worst type of exploitation. If any action should be taken, it should be legal in nature, and should be directed towards the pimps who produce such porn. Regardless of various legal stances on the subject, and as disturbing and distressing as it may be to some, “Muslim” porn has become a reality with more and more “Muslim” women appearing in pornographic movies produced in the United States, Europe, and even the Islamic world, fulfilling Muhammad’s prophecy that fornication and adultery would become rampant in the Islamic world.
The Western world has a long history of erotic art, prostitution, and pornography. While the Eastern world is not alien to these phenomena, they have traditionally been repressed and have remained underground. The very mention of “Muslim porn” is thus deeply offensive to Islamic sensibilities. For a Muslim, it comes as no surprise when Western women appear in adult films. Whether they are from Europe, the Americas, Australia or New Zealand, they are the products of promiscuous, liberal, and sexually liberated societies. In the public sphere, Muslim societies present an austere, conservative, appearance. While prostitution has never been eradicated in the lands of Islam, it is not openly available. It is found in dark dubious alleys and behind the scene brothels. With the advent of VCRs, DVDs, satellite television, and the internet, adult films became readily available throughout the Islamic world and are readily consumed as a matter of course. As Shaykh Muhammad al-Mujahid has acknowledged, “the consumption of porn is a major problem in the Muslim community.” In the Islamic world, what one does in one’s home, in private, in one’s closet, is nobody’s business and does not affect the structural integrity of society. It is what is done in public, in open, which must conform to Islamic cultural norms. It was one thing for sexually repressed Muslims to view non-Muslim women engaging in adult activities on film. It is altogether another issue when their own women start acting in them.
The Muslim woman has long been subject to manipulation. Since the dawn of Islam, Muslim women have been eroticized in the eyes of their enemies. In fact, during the life of the Prophet, a mischievous Jew was murdered for exposing the private parts of a Muslim woman. European authors and artists created an entire imaginary universe revolving around the sensuality of Muslim women, turning the veil, the Muslim woman’s symbol of chastity, into a sexual fetish. It goes without saying that the world of harems and orgies depicted in Western literature and art is more the product of European imagination than of Islamic reality. That Westerners wish to exploit Muslim women should come as no surprise to the Islamic world. From the Crusades to Colonialism and all the way to present day neo-imperialism, Muslim women have been booty in the eyes of the infidels: prizes to be taken, either willingly or forcibly. Whether it’s the gang-rapes committed by Zionists terrorists in Palestine, the sexual assaults committed by the Russians in Afghanistan or Chechnya, the mass rapes and murders committed by the Serbs in Bosnia, sex is the ultimate weapon of war. Of course, wars are not waged only on the battlefield; they are waged via the mass media, popular culture, and, of course, by the adult film industry.
In the past, Muslim women were generally impenetrable by infidels--and the pun is deliberate. The closest they could get to Muslim women was adorning prostitutes and porn stars with Islamic names, and dressing them like Arabian princesses. In fact, it was reported in Salon.com in June 7, 2000, that Israeli porn producers were hiring actors who looked like Egyptian stars, using them to shoot porn flicks in Israel. It was only in 2003 that SexStyle, the biggest pornography company in Israel, released a film featuring Arab performing, to the uproar of the Israeli Arab community. It has also been reported that the CIA operates Muslim porn sites as part of their “psychological warfare.” As Joshua Cohen explains in his article on Jewish porn, “The Chosen Peephole: Jews can do Porn just as badly as Everyone Else,” published in the New York Press in July of 2006, “angry-white-man-on-Muslim-woman material has proliferated since the first Gulf War.” According to him:
Anti-Muslim porn is less about religion than about than it is the embodiment of directionless hate in the form of sexual violence. It’s about ripping off that burka to see what’s underneath. It’s about the myth of the Manifest White Dick exploring and Christianizing the heathens in Holy scrotum-water.
It was only in the early 90s that pornographers were able to access women of Muslim backgrounds to act in the adult film industry. During the 90s, adult film producers were generally too afraid to identify the real origin of their actresses for fear of violent reprisal by Islamic activists. Tabatha Cash, the French starlet and extreme harlot, appeared in over 100 adult films during the 90s, cashing in on her exotic looks, appearing as an Arab in movies like the Erotic Adventures of Aladdin X and Marco Polo, produced by pornographer Joe d’Amato and Franco Lo Cascio. In this last film, she bears the title of Princess Zahra, a likely allusion to the Prophet Muhammad’s daughter, Fatimah al-Zahra. While the directors might claim that the name was chosen at random, it is not the most common of Muslim names. In fact, like Salman Rushdie who adorned prostitutes with the names of the Prophet’s wives in his book the Satanic Verses, the directors may very well have wanted to slight Islam in the same way. While she claimed to be half-Japanese and half-Italian, she is actually half-French and half-Libyan. For a time, she dated Serge Ayoub, a Lebanese immigrant, and neo-Nazi leader. Since 97% of Libyans are Muslims--the only non-Muslims being the 3% of the population which is comprised of foreign workers--it is safe to say that this little gang-bang girl had at least one Muslim parent. Her Arab origins are also evident in the fact that she named her son Mehdi, another insult to Islam as this is the title of the Awaited Imam, the Savior of Islam, whose arrival is expected by all Muslims, and which is particularly stressed by the Shi‘ites. Besides Tabatha Cash, there are many porn actresses who are rumored to be of Arab origin including Julia Chanel, who is marketed as half-Egyptian, Yasmine Fitzgerald, known as Lilla Fritz, who is allegedly Lebanese, and others who are supposedly Persian like Vanessa Chase, Stacy Carpenter, Mandy Lyn, Raven Lee, and Tanya Foxx, as well as many others who have remained more subtle about their origins.
By Mikail Kahina
For many, the term “Muslim porn” is an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms, and an assault against the senses. According to most Muslims, the mere fact of performing in an adult film would place a person outside the fold of Islam. In fact, according to Sunni jurisprudence, a Muslim woman who fornicates with a non-Muslim is guilty of irtidad or apostasy and would be subjected to the death penalty. According to Sunni scholars, a non-Muslim man who has sex with a Muslim girl has committed a capital offence which merits execution. According to Shi‘ite fiqh, however, a Muslim woman who has intercourse with a non-Muslim would merely be a fasiqah, an open sinner, rather than a murtadah or an apostate. In the event that she was single, she would be administered one hundred lashes. In the case of adultery, she would be condemned to death by stoning. As for the non-Muslim man who has sex with her, Sunni scholars would give him the death penalty. In the case of Shi‘ite scholars, some would advocate execution while others say the punishment depends on whether the perpetrator was subject to a treaty with the Islamic state. Any such punishment, of course, could only be applied by a Muslim judge in an Islamic state which as created conditions of socio-economic justice. Muslim jurists generally agree that Islamic punishments cannot be applied extra-jurisdictionally. While Islamic law may seem severe on the subject, mercy is meant to prevail in many instances. In Iran, for example, upon the establishment of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini forgave all the sex workers in the country and found them husbands. The same merciful attitude must be taken towards women involved in prostitution and porn: they are victims of the worst type of exploitation. If any action should be taken, it should be legal in nature, and should be directed towards the pimps who produce such porn. Regardless of various legal stances on the subject, and as disturbing and distressing as it may be to some, “Muslim” porn has become a reality with more and more “Muslim” women appearing in pornographic movies produced in the United States, Europe, and even the Islamic world, fulfilling Muhammad’s prophecy that fornication and adultery would become rampant in the Islamic world.
The Western world has a long history of erotic art, prostitution, and pornography. While the Eastern world is not alien to these phenomena, they have traditionally been repressed and have remained underground. The very mention of “Muslim porn” is thus deeply offensive to Islamic sensibilities. For a Muslim, it comes as no surprise when Western women appear in adult films. Whether they are from Europe, the Americas, Australia or New Zealand, they are the products of promiscuous, liberal, and sexually liberated societies. In the public sphere, Muslim societies present an austere, conservative, appearance. While prostitution has never been eradicated in the lands of Islam, it is not openly available. It is found in dark dubious alleys and behind the scene brothels. With the advent of VCRs, DVDs, satellite television, and the internet, adult films became readily available throughout the Islamic world and are readily consumed as a matter of course. As Shaykh Muhammad al-Mujahid has acknowledged, “the consumption of porn is a major problem in the Muslim community.” In the Islamic world, what one does in one’s home, in private, in one’s closet, is nobody’s business and does not affect the structural integrity of society. It is what is done in public, in open, which must conform to Islamic cultural norms. It was one thing for sexually repressed Muslims to view non-Muslim women engaging in adult activities on film. It is altogether another issue when their own women start acting in them.
The Muslim woman has long been subject to manipulation. Since the dawn of Islam, Muslim women have been eroticized in the eyes of their enemies. In fact, during the life of the Prophet, a mischievous Jew was murdered for exposing the private parts of a Muslim woman. European authors and artists created an entire imaginary universe revolving around the sensuality of Muslim women, turning the veil, the Muslim woman’s symbol of chastity, into a sexual fetish. It goes without saying that the world of harems and orgies depicted in Western literature and art is more the product of European imagination than of Islamic reality. That Westerners wish to exploit Muslim women should come as no surprise to the Islamic world. From the Crusades to Colonialism and all the way to present day neo-imperialism, Muslim women have been booty in the eyes of the infidels: prizes to be taken, either willingly or forcibly. Whether it’s the gang-rapes committed by Zionists terrorists in Palestine, the sexual assaults committed by the Russians in Afghanistan or Chechnya, the mass rapes and murders committed by the Serbs in Bosnia, sex is the ultimate weapon of war. Of course, wars are not waged only on the battlefield; they are waged via the mass media, popular culture, and, of course, by the adult film industry.
In the past, Muslim women were generally impenetrable by infidels--and the pun is deliberate. The closest they could get to Muslim women was adorning prostitutes and porn stars with Islamic names, and dressing them like Arabian princesses. In fact, it was reported in Salon.com in June 7, 2000, that Israeli porn producers were hiring actors who looked like Egyptian stars, using them to shoot porn flicks in Israel. It was only in 2003 that SexStyle, the biggest pornography company in Israel, released a film featuring Arab performing, to the uproar of the Israeli Arab community. It has also been reported that the CIA operates Muslim porn sites as part of their “psychological warfare.” As Joshua Cohen explains in his article on Jewish porn, “The Chosen Peephole: Jews can do Porn just as badly as Everyone Else,” published in the New York Press in July of 2006, “angry-white-man-on-Muslim-woman material has proliferated since the first Gulf War.” According to him:
Anti-Muslim porn is less about religion than about than it is the embodiment of directionless hate in the form of sexual violence. It’s about ripping off that burka to see what’s underneath. It’s about the myth of the Manifest White Dick exploring and Christianizing the heathens in Holy scrotum-water.
It was only in the early 90s that pornographers were able to access women of Muslim backgrounds to act in the adult film industry. During the 90s, adult film producers were generally too afraid to identify the real origin of their actresses for fear of violent reprisal by Islamic activists. Tabatha Cash, the French starlet and extreme harlot, appeared in over 100 adult films during the 90s, cashing in on her exotic looks, appearing as an Arab in movies like the Erotic Adventures of Aladdin X and Marco Polo, produced by pornographer Joe d’Amato and Franco Lo Cascio. In this last film, she bears the title of Princess Zahra, a likely allusion to the Prophet Muhammad’s daughter, Fatimah al-Zahra. While the directors might claim that the name was chosen at random, it is not the most common of Muslim names. In fact, like Salman Rushdie who adorned prostitutes with the names of the Prophet’s wives in his book the Satanic Verses, the directors may very well have wanted to slight Islam in the same way. While she claimed to be half-Japanese and half-Italian, she is actually half-French and half-Libyan. For a time, she dated Serge Ayoub, a Lebanese immigrant, and neo-Nazi leader. Since 97% of Libyans are Muslims--the only non-Muslims being the 3% of the population which is comprised of foreign workers--it is safe to say that this little gang-bang girl had at least one Muslim parent. Her Arab origins are also evident in the fact that she named her son Mehdi, another insult to Islam as this is the title of the Awaited Imam, the Savior of Islam, whose arrival is expected by all Muslims, and which is particularly stressed by the Shi‘ites. Besides Tabatha Cash, there are many porn actresses who are rumored to be of Arab origin including Julia Chanel, who is marketed as half-Egyptian, Yasmine Fitzgerald, known as Lilla Fritz, who is allegedly Lebanese, and others who are supposedly Persian like Vanessa Chase, Stacy Carpenter, Mandy Lyn, Raven Lee, and Tanya Foxx, as well as many others who have remained more subtle about their origins.










Comment