Egypt's Al-Azhar, the preeminent religious authority in Sunni Islam, has joined a growing chorus of international voices rejecting a recent call from leading human rights group Amnesty International to decriminalize sex work.
Al-Azhar officials warned that the sex industry enslaved the human body and went against all human nature that was designed by God and Islam, according to Egypt Independent.
They said move was a “frantic satanic attempt to demolish morals and values, an affront to the dignity of human beings, whom God has preferred over the rest of His creations, a practice inconsistent with human nature that enslaves human beings and trades their bodies, and a waste of the rights granted by God that are endorsed by all Abrahamic religions, particularly Islam."
Earlier this week, Amnesty International called for the development of policies to protect sex workers, including decriminalizing sex work globally.
"Sex workers are one of the most marginalized groups in the world who in most instances face constant risk of discrimination, violence and abuse. Our global movement paved the way for adopting a policy for the protection of the human rights of sex workers which will help shape Amnesty International’s future work on this important issue,” said Salil Shetty, secretary-general of Amnesty International.
The highly controversial policy, which has drawn criticism from many sections of society, is calling for full decriminalization of all consensual sex work and aims to ensure that sex workers have equivalent human rights and have access to full legal protection from exploitation, trafficking and violence.
While Amnesty acknowledged that prostitution and sex trafficking are linked in many ways, the group highlighted that criminalizing the work meant that sex workers had no legal recourses when they faced physical violence or other unsafe conditions.
“We recognize that this critical human rights issue is hugely complex and that is why we have addressed this issue from the perspective of international human rights standards. We also consulted with our global movement to take on board different views from around the world,” Shetty said.
In Islam, all pre-martial sex is sinful and the religion forbids all sexual relationships or acts that do not occur between a married man and his wife. Nevertheless, the sex industry is global phenomenon that is exponentially increasing and Amnesty International is not approaching this complex from a religious stance but from a global rights point of stance.