Salafist MP demands Egypt ban on porn sites

[hhaddad]

A Salafist Member of Parliament (MP), Younis Mkhion, requested on Monday that an urgent briefing be put before the People's Assembly calling for a block on all pornographic sites in Egypt's internet network, according to the official Salafist Nour Party website.
"These sites spread evil among different sects of the Egyptian society," said Mkhion in his request, "its content is criminalised by Egyptian law as well as being a breach of religious beliefs and social values and morals." The Salafist MP also stated that blocking pornography sites should not be considered a breach of freedom of speech.
If a majority in parliament agree with Mkhion's demand, the Ministry of Communications will be entitled to enforce the ban.
The Salafist Nour party secured approximately 25 per cent of the seats in Egypt's first parliament since Mubarak's ouster.
The beliefs of the ultra-conservative Islamist party are regarded by many seculars as a threat to free speech and personal freedoms. However, it is expected that the Islamist dominated parliament will not object to the ban. Across various social media platforms, many Egyptians have expressed their fears that blocking these websites might open the door to political and religious bans of other media as well as the Internet.

Salafist MP demands Egypt ban on porn sites - Politics - Egypt - Ahram Online


They're trying to close all the doors to freedom of choice with what the people want to do. After all sex eduaction in Egypt is practically zero so the teenagers use the net.

[Sonrisa]

First the bikinis and now the sites. These people seem to spend a great deal of time thinking about women bodies, when they should be concentrating in more pressing issues surely.

[marimar]

IMO that's the first sensible thing they've come up with since the revolution. The less pornographic rubbish in the world, the better.

[MaidenScotland]

A few years ago I read a graph on country porn hits...

Egypt came top
Bangladesh second..

Can't remember who came third.

but yes the less porn about the better.. it might make using an internet here more pleasant,

[hhaddad]

Originally Posted by marimar

IMO that's the first sensible thing they've come up with since the revolution. The less pornographic rubbish in the world, the better.

I think the problem is not porno on the net but censorship of content by bigots is not the solution to free speech and media content. Don't forget these are the guys that also say video clips on the tv are haram and football ,statues,photos etc. etc. etc.I suppose all the paintings hanging in the Tate and the Louvre are also haram.

When we say freedom of the media I remember we had to fight for it in the U.K. in the sixties to get off of the BBC stuffed shirt policies and help the pirates.

Porn has been there since the 1800s in some form or another.Now I don't support porn butt I think we should be free to judge for ourselves what we look at or what we don't point.

[MaidenScotland]

Originally Posted by hhaddad

I think the problem is not porno on the net but censorship of content by bigots is not the solution to free speech and media content. Don't forget these are the guys that also say video clips on the tv are haram and football ,statues,photos etc. etc. etc.I suppose all the paintings hanging in the Tate and the Louvre are also haram.

When we say freedom of the media I remember we had to fight for it in the U.K. in the sixties to get off of the BBC stuffed shirt policies and help the pirates.

Porn has been there since the 1800s in some form or another.Now I don't support porn butt I think we should be free to judge for ourselves what we look at or what we don't point.

Your right.. I just didn't think about that way but porn has been around much longer.. drawings before photos

[aykalam]

it's funny that most people think of porn as naked women. Surely there's guys (both homo and hetero) involved too?

The way I see it, if I don't like it I won't use it, but who am I to tell other people how to enjoy themselves?

"There is no such thing as part freedom" NM

[Pomegranite]

the people who are really into that kind of thing will just use a proxy to get around any ban.

[Sonrisa]

Originally Posted by Pomegranite

the people who are really into that kind of thing will just use a proxy to get around any ban.

Exactly.

And how do you define pornography? Naked bodies? A particularly sensual scene in a regular movie?

Anyone who has lived in the Gulf countries for a number of years will tell what is censorship like according to their standars. Whatching a simple movie can get confusing when half of it has been cut.

I remember, when I was pregnant in Qatar, I boght a book about pregnancy and birth only to find that someone (the authorities, presumably) had gone all over the book with the black marker and their scisors. THe actual photos of the birth were estrange, someone had skillfully covered the vagina, but I could still see the bloody head of the baby coming out of something

No wonder elective cesarean was the norm there, probably everyone thought the babies were popping out of their noses.

I'm all for making violent, explicit or degrading images and content unaccesible, here or elswhere, but I suspect that we have different views of what is acceptable and what not.

[aykalam]

Originally Posted by Sonrisa

I'm all for making violent, explicit or degrading images and content unaccesible, here or elswhere, but I suspect that we have different views of what is acceptable and what not.

yep. and don't forget according to most of these talking beards, us Western women already go out "naked" in the streets. So where do you put the boundaries in the New Egypt?

Like someone pointed out above, classic art is full of naked bodies, are we not to have access to that either? might as well shut down all modern telecomms and go back to the Middle Ages