The enduring myth of "sex jihad"

“Theologically speaking there’s no ‘sex jihad’ within Islam at all,” says Aaron Zelin, a fellow at the International Center for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence. “It seems like something the Iranian media would put out there to discredit the rebels and the opposition and to make them look like heathens.”

Iranian bloggers saved the credulous American media the embarrassment of reporting that a wave of horny extremists had invaded Syria. They had fallen for it before. Last year, the Huffington Post swallowed the Tunisian claim whole: “Sexual jihad fatwas typically allow armed members to have sexual intercourse with women as part of a temporary contract. It also allows women to sleep with more than one man a day, Fars News explains.” Fars News is an Iranian propaganda outlet.