Cross eyed obscenity

Some young boys were curiously glancing through the pages of those books. Back home while reading the local daily I found that Pakistan was the number one country in the world in accessing pornographic sites

It was Friday and I got up early in the morning. The first thing I did was to open up my Facebook page on the laptop. What I noticed was an ad on the right hand corner. “Biwi ko apna diwana bana’ye-----sirf mard hazrat click karain”. On my home page somebody had shared the contents from “Sahih bukhari”: “Mard ka biwi kay saath ghusal kerna”, “Aurat ko ehtalam hona” “Jis ney tanhai mein nanga hokay ghusal kiya” so on and so forth.

On my way to office, I noticed some saw wall chalkings, some of which read: “Mard kabhi boorha nahi hota”, “Jaryan aur aatshak ka shartiya elaaj”,  “Jinsi shifakhana”, “atomi capsule”. As I was passing through Laxmi chowk, I noticed billboards advertising theatre plays with “explosive” pictures of Nargis, Nida Chaudhary and Deedar. Some of the titles were “Chhapa”, “kotha”, “lamiyan raatan” and “Hai mein marr gayi”.

There were also some self-proclaimed shamans selling energy drugs on the roadside guaranteeing “full horse power” for an indefinite time span. One was selling yellow phosphorus and the other salajeet; a mineral –like compound from Pakistan’s highest cliffs, reportedly ensuring vigor and vitality. On the canal road, I saw fully made up eunuchs wearing bright-colored clothing, looking for some prospective customers.

At lunchtime, while in my office I could hear the Friday sermon from the loudspeakers of the mosque across the road. The mullah was shedding light on the Islamic way of intercourse; “The light in the room should be dim, while you put on a sheet over your wife. Now put on another sheet over your body and both of you may take off your clothes. After you both are through with it, put on a single sheet over those two sheets and slowly and gradually pull them out. As you both are now under a single sheet, free of clothes, you can start off by reciting “Ya khabiro, ya khibiro”. And if this procedure is not followed in letter and spirit the child born to such parents would be “illegitimate”.

As I switched on the FM radio, I could listen to a live sermon from a famous Lahore mosque. The mullah was discussing if masturbation was halal or haram in Islam. He told that Imam Jafar, Imam Malik and Imam Shafi considered it sinful while Imam Abu Hanifa contended that if a person was overwhelmed with emotions and performed the act, God would be kind enough to forgive him. On the other hand Imam Hanbal deemed it fully justified and thought that those who could not afford to marry might indulge in masturbation.

After I left office, I went to Anarkali to search for some good old books which are available at cheaper rates. Some of the books lying on the roadside were “Garbh shastra”, “Kam shastra”, “Prem shastra” and “Asli pandit Koka ki Kok shastra”. Some young boys were curiously glancing through the pages of those books. Back home while reading the local daily I found that Pakistan was the number one country in the world in accessing pornographic sites.

Next to it was a news item stating that a young molvi in a Peshawar mosque was sexually assaulted by two mullahs of older age and a case had been registered against the perpetrators. In one of the columns it was claimed that the entire red light area which was once located within the confines of one particular area in Lahore, after the high-handedness of the administration, was now spread all across the city and prostitutes were readily available in every nook and corner of the city.

At night while I was going through my e-mail account, I came across an article titled "Sodomy 'For the sake of Islam'," by Raymond Ibrahim, an associate fellow at the Middle East Forum. He had  reported that Abdullah Hassan al-Asiri, who plotted to assassinate Saudi Prince Muhammad bin Nayef in 2009 with a bomb hidden in his rectum, had apparently relied on a fatwa by an obscure cleric permitting sodomy to "widen" his anus to accommodate the explosives.

While Benjamin Doherty of The Electronic Intifada website denounced the Ibrahim article, claiming that he fell for a vulgar hoax, The Middle East Forum, an Arab think tank, looked both into this criticism and Mr. Ibrahim's rebuttal and found no evidence to substantiate the charges and, accordingly, the Forum stood by Mr. Ibrahim.

The Middle East Forum then stated that this "holy-warrior" apparently had fellow jihadists repeatedly sodomize him to "widen" his anus to fit the explosives—and all in accordance with the fatwas of Islamic clerics.

A 2010 Arabic news video that aired on Fadak TV gave the details. Apparently a cleric, one Abu al-Dema al-Qasab, informed al-Asiri and other jihadis of an innovative and unprecedented way to execute martyrdom operations: place explosive capsules in your anus. However, “to undertake this jihadi approach you must agree to be sodomized for a while to widen your anus so it can hold the explosives."

Others inquired further by asking for formal fatwas. Citing his desire for "martyrdom and the virgins of paradise," one jihadi (possibly al-Asiri himself) asked another sheikh, "Is it permissible for me to let one of the jihadi brothers sodomize me to widen my anus if the intention is good?"

After praising Allah, the sheikh's fatwa began by declaring that sodomy is forbidden in Islam, However, jihad comes first, for it is the pinnacle of Islam, and if the pinnacle of Islam can only be achieved through sodomy, then there is no wrong in it. For the overarching rule of [Islamic] jurisprudence asserts that 'necessity makes permissible the prohibited.' And if obligatory matters can only be achieved by performing the prohibited, then it becomes obligatory to perform the prohibited, and there is no greater duty than jihad.

At night when I switched on the TV, the main news was that the Supreme Court of Pakistan had taken suo moto notice on display of obscenity in television programs. And suddenly I recalled when a few years back an Islamic scholar was asked whether men and women could dance together:

"Absolutely not," said the Mullah. "It is immoral. Men and women always dance separately." "So after my marriage ceremony, I can't even dance with my own wife?" said the Mullah, "It's forbidden in Islam."

"What about sex? Can man and wife finally have sex?" “Of course!" "Allah hu Akbar! Sex is OK within marriage, to have children!"

Can I perform sex with my slave girl? “Oh sure” she is meant to give you pleasure. The Sheikh shouted. Can I do it with all my four wives together. “No problem," exclaimed the Mullah. "Can it be done standing up?" No not at all "Why not?" “Because that could lead to dancing."