From: Damien Broderick (d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Thu Sep 13 2001 - 01:06:42 MDT
At 06:24 PM 9/12/01 -0500, S.J. Van Sickle wrote:
>On Wed, 12 Sep 2001, Dickey, Michael F wrote:
>> The only way to get rid of terrorism is to remove
>> the incentive people have to commit it.
>Isn't this a bit like say "but if she hadn't been wearing that miniskirt
>in that part of town, she wouldn't have been raped"? This may be true in
>a strict sense, but hardly excuses the rapists.
Oh god, I *really* don't want to get into this, but no. From the viewpoint
of the perps it's surely more like: "If she hadn't gone driving through
that part of town once a week machine-gunning the shops, schools and
churches, she wouldn't have been raped."
Rape is a particularly inapropos image, of course, since the mind-infected
lunatics are driven in part, as scerir noted, by a disgustingly
misogynistic fantasy reward: the 72 compliant virgin houris they'll be
fucking in heaven for eternity.
Cf: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/june01/2001-06-26-suicide-usat.htm
In return for "martyrdom," Hamas tells the youths that their families will
be financially compensated, their pictures will be posted in schools and
mosques, and they will earn a special place in heaven.
They also are promised something more risqué: unlimited sex with
72 virgins in heaven. The Koran, the sacred book of Islam, describes the
women as "beautiful like rubies, with complexions like diamonds and
pearls." In one of the passages of the Koran, it is said the martyrs and
virgins shall "delight themselves, lying on green cushions and beautiful
carpets." Since the time of Mohammed, martyrs have always been considered
those willing to die defending Islam.
For some young Muslims, that offer is too much to turn down.
"I know my life is poor compared to Europe or America, but I have
something awaiting me that makes all my suffering worthwhile," says Bassam
Khalifi, 16, a Hamas youth leader in Gaza's Bureij refugee camp. "Most boys
can't stop thinking about the virgins."
But in the end, says Shaked, the Israeli terrorism expert, most
of the bombers don't sign up for martyrdom for the promise of unlimited
sex. "They join because of their absolute devotion to God and their desire
to die with Jewish blood on their hands," he says. "It's not a heroic
thing, it's a holy thing."
===============
And for a blow-by-blow inspection of the salient suras, etc (from a
convenient site that's nonetheless rather unpleasant in its own terms; this
character has serious problems with the idea of homosexuality):
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate/heaven.html
Damien Broderick
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