"B2431" wrote in message
...
From: Cub Driver


On an earlier thread, some despicable mysogynist wondered whether a
female suicide bomber got the 72 virgins issued to martyrs in heaven,

I am the "despicable mysogynist" who asked the question. The question is
valid
and still stands. One of the rewards frequently cited for martyrs is the
72
virgins. I never said the virgins the female martyrs would get were also
female.


I wouldn't worry too much about it -

Die Syro-Aramaische Lesart des Koran, available only in German, came out
just over a year ago, but has already had an enthusiastic reception,
particularly among those scholars with a knowledge of several Semitic
languages at Princeton, Yale, Berlin, Potsdam, Erlangen, Aix-en-Provence,
and the Oriental Institute in Beirut.
Luxenberg tries to show that many obscurities of the Koran disappear if we
read certain words as being Syriac and not Arabic. We cannot go into the
technical details of his methodology but it allows Luxenberg, to the
probable horror of all Muslim males dreaming of sexual bliss in the Muslim
hereafter, to conjure away the wide-eyed houris promised to the faithful in
suras XLIV.54; LII.20, LV.72, and LVI.22. Luxenberg 's new analysis, leaning
on the Hymns of Ephrem the Syrian, yields "white raisins" of "crystal
clarity" rather than doe-eyed, and ever willing virgins - the houris.
Luxenberg claims that the context makes it clear that it is food and drink
that is being offerred, and not unsullied maidens or houris.

In Syriac, the word hur is a feminine plural adjective meaning white, with
the word "raisin" understood implicitly. Similarly, the immortal, pearl-like
ephebes or youths of suras such as LXXVI.19 are really a misreading of a
Syriac expression meaning chilled raisins (or drinks) that the just will
have the pleasure of tasting in contrast to the boiling drinks promised the
unfaithful and damned.

As Luxenberg's work has only recently been published we must await its
scholarly assessment before we can pass any judgements. But if his analysis
is correct then suicide bombers, or rather prospective martyrs, would do
well to abandon their culture of death, and instead concentrate on getting
laid 72 times in this world, unless of course they would really prefer
chilled or white raisins, according to their taste, in the next.