Lust in Heaven?

When I learned that suicide bombers were promised an endless supply of women in paradise for blowing themselves to smithereens, I was baffled. I’m sure some Imam somewhere is going to argue that paradise and heaven are two different places. Fine, but that doesn’t address the issue. 72 wives and 72 virgins? The issue is why so many women? And isn’t lust supposed to be a characteristic of the infidel Western World and parts of Europe?

My confusion was fueled by the definition of the words suicide and martyr. These words have two different meanings. Suicide is the taking of one’s own life, while a martyr’s life is taken by someone other than himself for a principle or a great cause. According to the Hadith, a collection of sayings and doings attributed to the Prophet, suicide is forbidden. Martyrdom, on the other hand, is generously rewarded. Suicide and martyrdom are in direct opposition to each other, yet the Hamas leadership has somehow merged the two in spite of what the Hadith says about suicide. Therefore, it is a flagrant falsehood to tell suicide bombers that a sexually blissful paradise awaits them after they blow themselves up, while simultaneously violating the sacred traditions of their own belief system.

How does one get others to strap explosives on and detonate the bomb? Hamas leader Sheik Hasan Yosef says, “We like to grow them from kindergarten through college.” Translation: We brainwash them for 15 to 18 years. Then when these young men are at the peak of their sexuality, we turn these frustrated young men loose on the world with the guarantee of 72 wives and 72 virgins. Again, why so many? 144 women and only one man (A man, even at his sexual peak, is no match for one woman, let alone 144 of them)?

The answer to this puzzling question is answered by Al-Suyuti, Renewer of the Eighth Islamic century: “Each time we sleep with a houri we find her virgin. Besides, the penis of the Elected never softens. The erection is eternal; the sensation that you feel each time you make love is utterly delicious and out of this world and were you to experience it in this world you would faint. Each chosen one [i.e., Muslim] will marry seventy houris, besides the women he married on earth, and all will have appetising [sic] vaginas.”

Isn’t this sanctioned whoredom? Isn’t this the very thing that the radical Muslims accuse the Western World of doing now? Yet they are willing to blow themselves up to do it in the hereafter? I’m sure an Imam would say that’s not the only reason they do it. It’s about Israel. It’s about the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. It’s about Islamic patriotism. If that’s truly what’s it’s about, when are men in their forties and older going to join the crusade? Men in their forties and older are no longer saddled with the inconvenience of spontaneous youthful erections. Sure, men still lust after beautiful women when they get older, but nothing like they did in the peak sexual years.

When it comes to lust, Islamic boys and young men are biologically no different from American boys and young men during their pubescent years. One 16-year-old Hamas youth leader said, “Most boys can’t stop thinking about the virgins.” Why would they, given the natural biological changes their youthful bodies are experiencing? The same youth also said, “I know my life is poor compared to Europe or America, but I have something awaiting me that makes all my suffering worthwhile.”

An Israeli terrorist expert counters the lust argument by saying, “They join because of their absolute devotion to God and their desire to die with Jewish blood on their hands. It’s not a heroic thing, it’s a holy thing.” If these young men are blowing themselves up because of their devotion to God, why is it necessary to tell them that they have 72 wives and 72 virgins awaiting them in paradise? Why do they need to be told about an eternal erection? If the women are waiting there for them, if their erection is eternal, this should simply be an unexpected by-product of and reward for their devotion to Allah.

These young men want life, not death. This truth became abundantly clear when I read a June 28, 2002, article in the Associated Press detailing the pleas of a failed 16-year-old suicide bomber who was given life in prison when his bomb failed to detonate. The young man’s attorney asked for five years, which was rejected. When faced with life imprisonment and no possibility of the sexual bliss he had been promised, his youth was cited as a reason for leniency. In other words, the young man was old enough to blow himself up and murder others in the process, but much too young to live in an Israeli prison for the rest of his natural life. This was a golden opportunity to become a real martyr. He could have taken the life sentence and proved his patriotism like Nelson Mandela, a true martyr, who spent 27 years in prison and later became the President of the country that had imprisoned him.

Perhaps suicide bombings can be averted or at least scaled back significantly by giving these young men what they apparently want. They want far more than what the Hamas leadership says. They want unlimited sex. If they were given a continuous IV with a mixture of Viagra, Yohimbe, and Siberian Ginseng and access to a Middle Eastern bordello, maybe they would think twice before choosing suicide as a launching pad to sexual paradise.

What about the female suicide bombers? According to Libby Copeland of the Washington Post, there have been at least four female bombers. As devout Muslims, does the promise of a blissful existence in paradise apply to them? If not, why not? Is their sacrifice any less than that of their male counterparts? If not, aren’t they due 72 husbands and 72 virgins? Are the women in an eternal state of sexual readiness like their male counterparts? If Muslim women are afforded the same promises, do they become whores in heaven? To be clear, I’m not saying any of the above is true. I’m simply following the logic of what these young men are being told and applying what they’re being told to Muslim women, which drives home my point. Will there be lust in heaven? If the promise of wives and virgins is true, that’s whoredom pure and simple, which is the very thing they accuse the Western World of.

All comments about this article should be sent to:
KeithLeeJohnson1@aol.com

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