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Pornography, Respect, and Responsibility: A Letter to the Hotel Industry

Published

by Robert P. George and Shaykh Hamza Yusuf

Cross-posted from:  http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/07/5815

A letter on pornography and business ethics written by two prominent public intellectuals—one a Christian, one a Muslim—sent to hotel industry executives last week.

We write to ask you to stop offering pornographic movies in your company’s hotels. We make no proposal here to limit your legal freedom, nor do we threaten protests, boycotts, or anything of the sort. We simply ask you to do what is right as a matter of conscience.

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We are, respectively, a Christian and a Muslim, but we appeal to you not on the basis of truths revealed in our scriptures but on the basis of a commitment that should be shared by all people of reason and goodwill: a commitment to human dignity and the common good. As teachers and as parents, we seek a society in which young people are encouraged to respect others and themselves—treating no one as an impersonal object or thing. We hope that you share our desire to build such a society.

Pornography is degrading, dehumanizing, and corrupting. It undermines self-respect and respect for others. It reduces persons—creatures bearing profound, inherent, and equal dignity—to the status of objects. It robs a central aspect of our humanity—our sexuality—of its dignity and beauty. It ensnares some in addiction. It deprives others of their sense of self-worth. It teaches our young people to settle for the cheap satisfactions of lust, rather than to do the hard, yet ultimately liberating and fulfilling, work of love.

We recognize that we are asking you to abandon a profitable aspect of your business, but we hope that you will muster the conviction and strength of will to make that sacrifice and to explain it to your stockholders. We urge you to do away with pornography in your hotels because it is morally wrong to seek to profit from the suffering, degradation, or corruption of others. Some might say that you are simply honoring the free choices of your customers. However, you are doing much more than that. You are placing temptation in their path—temptation for the sake of profit. That is unjust. Moreover, the fact that something is chosen freely does not make it right; nor does it ensure that the choice will not be damaging to those who make it or to the larger community where degrading practices and materials flourish.

We beg you to consider the young woman who is depicted as a sexual object in these movies, as nothing but a bundle of raw animal appetites whose sex organs are displayed to the voyeurs of the world and whose body is used in loveless and utterly depersonalized sex acts. Surely we should regard that young woman as we would regard a sister, daughter, or mother. She is a precious member of the human family. You may say that she freely chooses to compromise her dignity in this way, and in some cases that would be true, but that gives you no right to avail yourself of her self-degradation for the sake of financial gain. Would you be willing to profit from her self-degradation if she were your sister? Would you be willing to profit from her self-degradation if she were your own beloved daughter?

Furthermore, we trust that you need no reminding of the fact that something’s being legal does not make it right. For example, denying black men and women and their families access to hotel rooms—and tables in restaurants, as well as other amenities and opportunities—was, for countless shameful years, perfectly legal. In some circumstances, it even made financial sense for hotel owners and operators in racist cultures to engage in segregationist practices even when not compelled by law to do so. However, this was deeply morally wrong. Shame on those who denied their brothers and sisters of color the equal treatment to which they were morally entitled. Shame on you if you hide behind legality to peddle immorality in the pursuit of money.

Our purpose is not to condemn you and your company but to call you to your highest and best self. We have no desire to hurt your business. On the contrary, we want you and your business to succeed financially—for your sake; for the sake of your stockholders, employees, and contract partners; and for the sake of the communities that your hotels serve. We believe that the properly regulated market economy serves the good of all by providing products and services at reasonable prices and by generating prosperity and social mobility. But the market itself cannot provide the moral values that make it a truly humane and just institution. We—owners, managers, employees, customers—must bring those values to the market. There are some things—inhuman things, unjust things, de-humanizing things—that should not be sold. There must be some things that, for the sake of human dignity and the common good, we must refuse to sell—even it if means forgoing profit.

Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University. Shaykh Hamza Yusuf is co-founder and a member of the faculty of Zaytuna College. Affiliations are provided for identification purposes and do not imply institutional endorsements.

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8 Comments

8 Comments

  1. Blizz

    July 11, 2012 at 12:55 AM

    Thank you both for taking the step. I hope positive response will come out of this effort.

  2. ChuLLbuLee

    July 11, 2012 at 5:55 AM

    the step is surely great and I appreciate it. but, sadly enough Muslims and christians are the ones who demand such items and thus are provided. To remove such vulgarity from society, we need to deepen our values in the first place. JAzak Allah humma khair.

  3. Halima

    July 11, 2012 at 6:58 PM

    Nicely written article. But this is just ideal-not realistic. Everyone wants to make a buck. Good effort on their part though.

    • hj

      July 14, 2012 at 10:55 AM

      we should do what we can,if each and everyone did what he could,we wouldn’t be in this mess and we all are answerable to our deeds , if we see anything wrong we should forbid it (if i am not wrong) may ALLAH guide us all to the right path..ameen…

  4. Mostafa Amini

    July 12, 2012 at 1:14 AM

    What an amazing discourse presented by our beloved Shakyh, Hamza Yusuf. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, one of the greatest scholars in our country. May Allah preserve him and allow us all to benefit from him.

  5. umm esa

    July 12, 2012 at 5:12 AM

    A few months ago, my parents decided to visit me in Chicago because I was moving to another country. I had sold all of my furniture, so went to book a motel for them. I quickly needed a place for them, and didn’t do much research beforehand. Once I booked the motel, the guy said to me, “Who are you booking it for? Is it friends or family?” I replied, “For my parents.” He said, “We have some bad channels here, I will try to unplug them for your parents’ room. I see you are a Muslim, I am a Muslim too” In my head, I was like, “What the heck?” Later on, I looked up the reviews of the motel on line, there were complains of pornographic channels. I advice people in the US to do their research before booking a motel, esp. if they are going to be alone, to avoid any type of fitnah. I wish I had advised the brother/hotel manager too, just like it was done in the article. Thank you for posting it.

  6. Sadaf Farooqi

    July 12, 2012 at 5:51 AM

    Excellent initiative! The arguments and logic presented are excellent and appeal to the moral reason present in every rational, self-respecting human being. Barak Allahu feekum.

  7. clarknt67

    July 21, 2012 at 3:59 PM

    Disappointing to see this site granting a platform and the air of credibilty to Robert George who has devoted so much time and energy into foementing animus toward gay people. His latest project was to finance a junk science study out of University of Texas, which he and his National Organization for Marriage are using to demonize LGBT families. The study has been condemned by over 200 members of the American Psychological Association for poor methology and unfounded conclusions. Still, Robert George will use it to keep LGBT marginalized.

    George is not a credible authority and a disgrace to Princeton.

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