72 virgins indeed.

how easy it comes to us to think the beliefs of others to be ludicrous.

one hopes that the audience applies the same critical approach to claims of virgin births, noah's ark, resurrection from the dead, walking on water, or for that matter to psychics, astrology, acupuncture... but then again, one is an optimist.

It's "Walter" not "Waldo" :)

Can anyone here provide a quote of some Muslim, any Muslim, even a major terrorist figure like Osama bin Laden, uttering the phrase "72 virgins" in any context whatsoever, other than to ask what all these Western comedians are talking about?

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.

Holy rewards for suffering

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."

From a USA Today article http://tinyurl.com/y48u5x

Of course the veracity of the story is in question seeing as how it's undoubtedly biased.

But then since I can't be arsed lookingit up in their holy book I like most others will just end up taking their word for it.

Did a quick google search ..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/saturday_review/story/0,3605,631332,00.html

"Two points need to be noted. First, there is no mention anywhere in the Koran of the actual number of virgins available in paradise, and second, the dark-eyed damsels are available for all Muslims, not just martyrs. It is in the Islamic Traditions that we find the 72 virgins in heaven specified: in a Hadith (Islamic Tradition) collected by Al-Tirmidhi (died 892 CE [common era*]) in the Book of Sunan (volume IV, chapters on The Features of Paradise as described by the Messenger of Allah [Prophet Muhammad], chapter 21, About the Smallest Reward for the People of Paradise, (Hadith 2687). The same hadith is also quoted by Ibn Kathir (died 1373 CE ) in his Koranic commentary (Tafsir) of Surah Al-Rahman (55), verse 72: "The Prophet Muhammad was heard saying: 'The smallest reward for the people of paradise is an abode where there are 80,000 servants and 72 wives, over which stands a dome decorated with pearls, aquamarine, and ruby, as wide as the distance from Al-Jabiyyah [a Damascus suburb] to Sana'a [Yemen]'."

If they can make it to heaven, one of the rewards all Muslims are promised is 72 virgins. The number of virgins is not specified in Quran, it comes from a quotation of Muhammad recorded in one of the lesser known Hadith. ("Hadith" is an Arabic word meaning traditions. After Muhammad's death, several collections of his deeds and sayings were assembled. These collections are called Hadith and form the second most authoritative document is Islam, right after the Quran.)

The specific Hadith in which the number of virgins is specified is Hadith Al-Tirmidhi in the Book of Sunah (volume IV, chapters on The Features of Paradise as described by the Messenger of Allah, chapter 21, About the Smallest Reward for the People of Paradise. The same hadith is also quoted by Ibn Kathir in his Quranic commentary (Tafsir) of Surah Al-Rahman:

"The Prophet Muhammad was heard saying: 'The smallest reward for the people of paradise is an abode where there are 80,000 servants and 72 wives, over which stands a dome decorated with pearls, aquamarine, and ruby, as wide as the distance from Al-Jabiyah [a Damascus suburb] to Sana'a [Yemen]."

(QURAN 37:40-4 : "In the Gardens of Paradise, Facing one another on thrones, Round them will be passed a cup of pure wine; White, delicious to the drinkers, Neither they will have any kind of hurt, abdominal pain, headache, or sin, nor will they suffer intoxication from it. And with them will be chaste females, restraining their glances, with wide and beautiful eyes."

Homosexuality was and is widely practised in Islamic countries. To please the homosexuals among his followers he promised them pre-pubescent boys in Paradise. So after committing plunder, loot, rape and murder in this life, the followers of Islam get "rewarded" by untouched virginal youths who are fresh like pearls

(QURAN 52:24): "And there will go round boy-servants of theirs, to serve them as if they were preserved pearls."

(QURAN 56:17): "They will be served by immortal boys."

(QURAN 76:19): "And round about them will (serve) boys of everlasting youth. If you see them, you would think them scattered pearls."

intheIslamicworld"Read here"

It is not surprising that we find contradictions in Islam of views on sexuality. Though sex with these virgin women and boys might be thought of as OK because it is happening in heaven approved by God and not on earth.

Some of you may have heard that serious scholars think it possible that 72 raisins are actually promised. The possible mistranslation of the word "hur" is at issue.

http://tinyurl.com/rekn8

Those all say "72 wives," not "72 virgins." Besides, I wasn't asking anyone to find some hadith about it that's not even in the two sahihs. These 72 virgins are put forth as the primary method by which suicide bombers are talked into blowing themselves up. If that's the case, a Google search should not just turn up a few references to them from dubious sources and something by Ibn Warraq or Ayaan Hirsi Ali about virgins in Qur'an and hadith, but lots and lots of them. More references than I can find, for instance, by searching Google for cases of suicide bombers or their recruiters calling attention to the absolutely stupefying levels of death and destruction that have been wrought by the West and Israel on Muslim countries over the past couple centuries.

Which do you honestly think there are more of?

Of course, the millions of victims of colonialism or the hundreds of thousands of victims of the current Iraq war are harder to make decent jokes about.

(QURAN 78:31-34): "As for the righteous, they shall surely triumph. Theirs shall be gardens and vineyards, and high-bosomed virgins for companions: a truly overflowing cup."

I don't know how clearer I can put it. Don't believe me, simply go to a Qu'ran online source and type in the chapter and verse and it'll come out for you to read (including previous and subsequent verses) or read the book physically for yourself.

Anyone here read the Koran in Arabic?

Me thinks that there is an ongoing effort to demonize Muslims.

That said, truth and false-flag-attack-driven war of civilizations aside, the guy was pretty funny.

Your beliefs speak nothing of truth. These beliefs are readily admitted to exist by Muslims themselves. I think you are just dumbfounded by the ridiculousness of religious beliefs, and you know what, I don't blame you. But we need to stop being so appologetic and see these beliefs for what they are and raise consciousness.

Free Truth,

I can read the Qur'an in Arabic. But that's almost irrelevant to the discussion, since the issue here is not whether it says this or that thing awaits believers in Paradise. It's this whole notion that all we need to do for everyone to be able to sit down and sing kumbaya is for someone to talk the suicide bombers out of being so obsessed with their 72 virgins. The number 72 is in that one hadith reported by At-Tirmidhi, and as for the virgin part, some of the women of Islamic Paradise are supposed to be not actual women who once lived on Earth, but beings created specifically to be companions of people who did once live there. Of course they would be virgins, since who else would they have had sex with beforehand? So the 72 part comes from somewhere, and the virgin part comes from somewhere. It's only when you see comedians and the like throwing the phrase "72 virgins" around, with a consistency as though those two exact words came from the mouth of bin Laden himself, that it becomes clear that there's a problem. Popular conceptions in America about motivations for suicide bombers are, for the most part, urban legend. You can spot someone who only knows about suicide bombers and such from urban legends by their use of the specific phrase "72 virgins," because Muslims don't talk that way. Suicide bombers don't convince themselves that what they're doing is right by obsessing over virgins, or merely because they've been infected with some sort of violent "meme." They convince themselves of that by referring to atrocities orders of magnitude larger than any suicide bombing that have been and are still being committed by the nations whose citizens they target. The imagery of Paradise might make a nice pep talk on the side, but that's not the root justification that anyone uses for suicide bombing. Reality is, of course, far less comfortable in this case for most Americans than simply inventing some silly rationalization involving some belief particular to Islam. Hence the urban legend.

Did Walter say "go f*ck yourself" to Letterman at the end,during the music? I´m pretty sure he did.

Only slightly offtopic, Western claims of what Arabs say are not always correct; unless you speak Arabic and Farsi, you have to trust the translators.

Ahmadinejad never said Israel should be "wiped off the map", though this is still widely quoted and often used as conclusive proof of bad-guy status.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MahmoudAhmadinejadand_Israel

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jonathansteele/2006/06/post155.html

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12790.htm

Norm, the clip isn't 2m41s. It's closer to 5m25s.

And more relevant, I find it highly suspect when the first person I heard speaking about 72 virgins (and the 72 raisins, by coincedence) in heaven was Robin Williams.

Wow a moderately sophisticaed theological discussion on an atheist blog.

"Me thinks that there is an ongoing effort to demonize Muslims."

No, I don't think so. If in fact we are all wrong about the fact that the 72 virgins belief is really held by many suicide bombers, it doesn't do anything to demonize Muslims because a) we're talking about suicide bombers, not all Muslims, and b) they're already blowing themselves up in the attempt to kill other people--a religious belief about heavenly sex doesn't seem to add much to the crime.

But by the way, it's not an urban myth--there are instances of average suicide bombers talking about this--in one case in Israel was a failed suicide bomber who had his uh, member protected by a metal shield. Why? His explanation was so that he would be ready for the virgins in heaven. There are indeed claims which ignorant people repeat again and again which are nevertheless not urban myths.

dende blogger,

It's still mostly urban legend. In particular, the notion that the 72 virgins have anything to do with the argument suicide bombers make in order to try to justify what they do, not to try to talk themselves into going through with it once it's been justified, is entirely urban legend. There are lots of people in the West, including this particular comedian, who do in fact believe that that's how suicide bombers justify their actions. The justification arguments are exactly what I mentioned in previous posts.