Porn Sites

Internet porn sites should be blocked by the government, say religious leaders.

Former Muhammadiyah leader Syafi'i Maarif, generally considered to be more relaxed in his understanding of Islam than the current Muhammadiyah boss, Din Syamsuddin, urges the government to take action against web porn sites.

Syafi'i Maarif.

Indonesia was lagging behind its neighbours Singapore and Malaysia in the interception of internet porn, he said in Jakarta on the 20th during a discussion entitled "Peran Pemuka Agama Dalam Pengembangan Keluarga Sejahtera", or the Role of Religious Leaders in Creating Good Family Life".
He believed that porn could damage morality and increase crime rates, and that people who watched porn became only half human, morally speaking. [1]
Separately on the 21st another moderate Muslim leader, Tholchah Hasan of the Nahdlatul Ulama (PBNU), agreed, saying also that the Indonesian government had to follow the lead of Singapore and Malaysia and get tough on porn websites. Hasan said that today there were four million pornographic websites in the world, which could be accessed by children and caused untold moral damage.

Tholchah Hasan.

Hasan, who was minister of religious affairs under president Abdurrahman Wahid and comes from Tuban, East Java, cited an example known to him. A 13 year old girl who had fallen pregnant told her doctor that sexual relations with her older brother had been initiated after the siblings had often seen their parents watching porno movies on DVD. [2]