After all, it would be ‘for the children’.

Christoph Luxenberg’s book, 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.

articles here and here

He has said he wants to become a shahid, a martyr, so I think he should get his wish and be sent to heaven,” Amit said.

If the man wants to be a martyr then by all means we should facilitate that. He can go to that big strip club in the sky with 72 dancers.

Once he gets there he just may notice the air conditioning is broken and it will be quite a bit hotter than he anticipated.

We oughta send more troops to Afghanistan along with our Iraq “surge” and then hit Iran from East and West.

…or is that just for the over paid, over pampered misfits in the military???***

*** FYI….Sarcasm

Never mind Iraq; what would killing Ahmadinejad do to Iran? What it’d probably do is cause an anti-western backlash that would entrench the leadership, which in turn would make it more likely that Khamenei’s successor is a radical, which would actually make the risk of regional and/or nuclear war more likely.

posted at 6:32 pm on February 14, 2007 by Allahpundit

I disagree. This is a logical assertion base on the Western perspective that influences world opinion, but this is not how I understand the Middle Eastern mindset.

Killing their leader may put them in a spin and cause conflict, but it will cause an internal strife for power and weaken them externally. Mercilessly cutting the head off of their leader sends a distinct message of strength, and their culture highly respects that kind of strength.

Likewise, we need to stop playing patty-cake with enemy leaders in Iraq. Maliki is a nominal leader with little cultural influence, expecting him to help solve our problems in Iraq is ignorant and borderline foolish.

Kill their cultural leaders, and their followers will seek to make peace with the new big dog on the block. As long as we let the big-dog cultural leaders like Al-Sadr remain alive, when we could so easily kill them, makes us look weak in their eyes. As long as we continue to present our weak side to them they will continue to shoot at it.

The secret assassination of Iranian leaders wouldn’t involve a “full-blown American ground presence” either. No disagreement with your second paragarh.

Yeah; but how long do you think our “secret” involvement would stay a secret? We would be blamed the minute the news hit the airwaves.

Use Iranian weapons in covert sabotage or assassinations in friendly ME countries and watch the Arab street erupt; remember how long it took for Arabs in Jordan to condemn Zarqawi after he blew up a wedding?

With direct evidence linking Iranian weapons used in Saudi Arabia, Egypt (et al) the Mullahs would be backed into a corner and so would AJ; then watch the fun begin.

The military offensive against the Somali Islamists was non-news because it didn’t involve a full-blown American ground presence and was mostly carried out by Ethiopian troops supporting the military of the legitimate Somali Government.

The secret assassination of Iranian leaders wouldn’t involve a “full-blown American ground presence” either. No disagreement with your second paragarh.

Yes but all eyes are on Iran. The ayatollahs can’t fart without it making the papers. The regime change in Somalia didn’t create a massive fuss because like Mossadegh-era Iran it was perceived to be of minimal importantce, at least compared with Iran and Iraq.

The military offensive against the Somali Islamists was non-news because it didn’t involve a full-blown American ground presence and was mostly carried out by Ethiopian troops supporting the military of the legitimate Somali Government.

Instead of destroying weapons we capture bearing the markings of Iranian origins, perhaps they should be redeployed to friendly Middle Easter countries (covertly) in an attempt to instigate open confrontation with the Mullahs. Instead of assassinating MJ or any hostile Mullahs you assassinate a friend thereby dividing OPEC countries who will then increase Oil production and marginalize Iran’s main source of revenue. As their economy deteriorates you open up mass unrest at home and…no more Mullahs.

They play dirty, why the hell can’t we?

Never mind Iraq; what would killing Ahmadinejad do to Iran? What it’d probably do is cause an anti-western backlash that would entrench the leadership, which in turn would make it more likely that Khamenei’s successor is a radical, which would actually make the risk of regional and/or nuclear war more likely.

Yeah, that’s the problem with assassination by onesies and twosies. But the Maxim gun can take out an entire ruling class all at once. I’m not arguing for the sake of present action: Fat chance. I’m casting aspersion on our moralism and the retail scale of our willingness to destroy our enemies and those who generate them, and my argument is for the future.

Moran’s got a long post about it and is worried about tit-for-tat reprisals against America’s own leaders, but that’s not something that should deter us with the stakes as high as they are.

It’s pretty f*cking oligarchic of the Left or anyone else to propose, in effect, that fighting and dying should be left to the little people. For my part, I regret the small probability that I’ll ever get to vivisect Ahmadinejad.

Ha!

“Welcome to Raisins! Hi Cutey!”

Yeah, Mohammad had a 6-year old wife.

Former Mossad chief: It’s time to send Ahmadinejad to meet Allah

The former Mossad chief is a little slow.