I wrote: > > The whole "72 virgins" in Islamic heaven thing and the unhealthy > > obsession with martyrdom certainly sound strongly cultish. It is > > disturbing that such things appear to be taught even to young children > > in schools in Palestine.
And Roland Hechtenberg writes: > I am not sure if the "72 virgins" are part of the Koran or are something > added by hate-mongers in some medressas. > The "schools in Palestine" you are referring to would be some medressas > and not what we normally call schools, yes? >From what I understand, the story of "72 virgins" is not from the Koran or at the very least this is a vile distortion of the Koran used by these hate-mongers for their own purposes. This distortion of gospel is also a hallmark of cults and cult leaders. By the way, as far as I can tell, "madrasa" (also spelled madrasah or medressa, among other ways) is simply the Arabic word for "school" so it might be inaccurate to use madrasa to refer only to religious schools that teach a radicalized version of Islam. For the sake of future peace in the region, I can only hope that the Palestinian schools that teach such a hateful, cultish version of Islam are in the minority. But I am not so sanguine. I wrote: > > Remember the "Heaven's Gate" cultists? And Jim Jones in Guyana? The > > former offed only themselves so they seem not to have a great negative > > impact on society. But the latter and the Islamic suicide bombers killed > > many innocent children and bystanders, so their acts are much more evil > > and despicable. > > I actually did not remember Heaven's Gate and initially misunderstood > your above reference to killing children. Sorry about that. I suppose Heaven's Gate was only a very local news story here in California. (But they were really strange and it was a shocking story. Why do I remember even the name of their supposed deity "Rael"?) Perhaps a better example would have been the famous French and Quebecois suicide cult (the name of which escapes me now). Alan --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Persons posting messages to not_honyaku assume all responsibility for their messages. The list owner does not review messages prior to posting, and accepts no responsibility for the content of messages posted. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
