One of the things that always makes one wonder is - when guardians of culture declare that doing a certain thing leads to something else, how, exactly, do they know this with such certainty?





Are these men researching all these forbidden arts? For science perhaps?





And in one of those declarations that make this thought especially niggling, the former Grand Mufti of Egypt (2003–2013) - Ali Gomaa, has declared that watching pornography turns you, of all things, towards atheism. How he came upon this conclusion, alas, remains unexplored.





Speaking to the TV channel CBC, the Sufi cleric, declared that "Pornography, which is made public and is circulated through magazines and movies and has its stars, was an industry initiated in 1960 in the US and is the cause of all affliction in which the world now lives,".





Porn, by making viewers believe the human body can be used for "anything", would cause the viewers to gravitate towards atheism, he added.





Calling porn a plague on mankind, he also added "I hope we do not link this industry to freedom, because freedom is elevated and means human dignity,"





Interestingly, among all of the Grand Mufti's, Gomaa is easily the most liberal and modern. He has called himself a liberal many times.





During his tenure he supported female rights, declared men and women to be equal, opposed the death penalty and also used his considerable influence to issue several fatwas against Female Genital Mutilation - calling it not only 'un-Islamic' but forbidden as well.





He is also one of the most famous clerics to take a uncompromising and hard-line stance against terrorism, saying "Terrorists are criminals".





Apparently he just really doesn't like pornography.



