Fatwa on Halal sex shop?
By Techgirl

How does one get a Fatwa over his head?  You can write a book like Salman Rushdie and anger some Muslim clerics or paint gods and goddess like MF Hussain and disgust many Hindus. Or you may be enjoying a glass of beer with friends in Bangalore and get beaten up by right wing Hindu thugs.

Or you may open an online sex shop catering for Muslims and then shameless quote religious verses while flogging ‘accessories’ to promote sexual performance and satisfaction. At many levels, this is not dissimilar to disgraced Swami Nityananda mixing sex and yoga.

While India’s largest English newspaper ‘Times of India’ politely described it as a ‘Halal’ internet sex shop in Holland which is ‘candid but demure but does not offend Sharia law’, the media in Europe were less diplomatic.   

Netherland-based media group NRL described the online sex shop in an article first published on March 23, 2010.  Excerpts of the NRL article are:

“
HajoAbdelaziz Aouragh is a Muslim, lives in Amsterdam, and deals in sex articles. His webshop El Asira, which is for Muslims, will soon be selling Pure Power capsules which "heighten male performance, desire and pleasure". Desire capsules for women will also be available, sensual stimulators for him and her and lubricants based on cocoa butter, water or silicon. El Asira calls itself "the first Islamic online webshop for sex articles and care products". Its webshop should be open for business starting this weekend.

Not knowing whether his religion would allow the trade in sex products, Aouragh visited an imam, who in turn consulted a Saudi sheik. It was allowed, he learned, as long as the products were halal and meant to improve sex within marriage

As well as making money, Aouragh wants his sex shop to change the image of Islam as hostile to women. "The image of women in the kitchen, submissive, dressed in a burkah isn't true. There is a lot of love. Islam has a lot of respect for women. Our shop puts the woman at the centre of things." 

The imam who advised El Asira is Boularia Houari, a 35-year-old glass fibre cable technician who gives Koran lessons and preaches on request at various mosques

Aouragh asks Houari something, then explains that coitus interruptus is allowed but that condoms are preferred. "A condom is better for maximum sexual pleasure because the penis is not withdrawn when orgasm is reached. It's important in Islam that both men and women reach orgasm. If a woman is not satisfied, she will use impure methods like masturbation or vibrators."

El Asira's products are halal. But what if a single person buys Pure Power capsules? Or a couple uses the lubricant in an un-Islamic way, for instance for sex during menstruation? "That was my question to the scholar," says Aouragh. "He said to forget that. It's not my responsibility. Sinful behaviour will be punished after death."
“

As you can imagine, any such online sex shop promoting itself as catering to the Islamic world would run into opposition from some frustrated conservatives.  The same would happen if such an online shop was run by a Hindu catering for Hindus.  Or a shop pitching itself as a Christian sex shop.  In our part of the world,  sex toys and self realization do not gel.  Whatever their religious views, most Indians believe that the privacy of your bedroom should not intrude into the public places of worship.

In that sense, it was a bad idea for this internet shop to mix sex and religion.  And to audaciously tell the local media: “Our Sex shop gives women equality and respect”.  It was like waving a red flag to a raging bull.

The online sex shop El Asira has been down for many days. It seems no internet Viagra has been able to bring it up for many days.  More likely,  the site elasira.net has been attacked by some hacker who believes such sites are not Halal.  If you try to access elasira.net, you get a message ‘Access is forbidden to the requested page’.

Techgoss note: Techgirl is a senior Tech journalist who reports on the IT, KPO and KPO Sectors for a leading media house.  In her spare time, she dabbles in satire in her blog http://techgirltalk.blogspot.com