The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam(andthe Crusades)0 th e jo y of so do my! So no w be so do mi te s, yo u Ar ab s. Tu rnno t
aw ayfr om it—th er ei n is wo nd ro us pl ea su re. Ta ke so meco y la d wit h
ki ss- cur ls twi sti ng on his te mpl e and rid e hi m ashe sta nds lik eso me
gaz ell e sta ndi ng to her mat e—A lad who mal l ca n se e gi rt wi th sw or d
an d be lt no t li ke you r wh or e wh ohas to go veil ed. Mak e for smo oth-
fac ed boy s and do you r ver ybest to mount them, for women are the mounts
of the devils!'Th is pa ra do xi cal at ti tu de towa rd ho mos ex ual it y ru ns th ro ugh Isl ami c
hi st or y. Eve n th e Ot to man su lt an Me hme d H, th e co nq uer or of Co nst an-
tin opl e, was ope n abo ut thi s pro cli vit y. Whi le the con que red cit y was sti ll
smo ld er in g, Me hme d tu rn ed hi s min d aw ay Fr om wa rs an d ba tt le s an d
de mande d th at th e fa mo us ly ha nd so me te en ag e so n of a By zan ti ne of ficial,
Lukas Notaras, be brought to him. Notaras went to the sultan andJust Like Today: Paradise still lures young men
"The Americans love Pepsi-Cola, we love death" crowed Maulana lnyadullahof al
Qaeda.' Muslims love death because Allah commands them to value the joys of
Paradise over those of this world: "Those who love the life of this world more than the
hereafter, who hinder men from the path of Allah and seek therein something crooked:
they are astray by along distance" (Qur'an 14:3).
As lurid as they are, the joys of IslamicParadisehave a definite and continuingappeal—anappeal felt most sharply, perhaps, by teenage boys. In 2004, a fourteen-year-
old would-be Palestiniansuicidebornbertold the Israeli troops who disarmed him:
'Blowing myself up is the onlychance I've got to have sex with seventy-two virgins in the
Garden of Eden." Anotherfourteenyear-old explained how a jihadist recruiter enticed
him to join the jihad in Iraq:''He told meabout paradise, about virgins, about Islam.'
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