Terrorism's Raisin D'etre

Before you all email me telling me that I can't spell, there is a very good reason for the use of the word "Raisin"; which you will see as you read on.

Anyhoo, as you know Nanny and her control freakery can come in many forms; central government, local government, health and safety, the BBC and individuals all have their part to play in the creation of a Nanny state.

One grouping that is more than overburdened with people who have "Nannyistic" tendencies, is that of religious organisations; Archbishop Tut Tut ably demonstrated his Nannyistic tendencies a while ago, as he talked of "unpoliced conversations".

Normally, this site does not stick its nose into the affairs of religions; people have a right to worship who they want, in the way that they want, so long as they don't attempt to impose their views on others.

However, there are occasions when some religions attempt to push their views onto the rest of us. Under those circumstances they then become legitimate targets for Nanny Knows Best.

The other week extreme Islamists bombed London, and decapitated themselves in the process. This act, although some have attempted to "justify" it by blaming British foreign policy, is nothing more than an expression of blind hatred for the West.

The perpetrators despise every aspect of Western culture and way of life, their sole aim is to kill us off.

The perpetrators have been brought up in a closed society that, for instance, claims to value women and the sanctity of the family so much that they insist on making women wear burqas.

A cynic might ask why, if the idea of the burqa is to protect the sanctity of the family, men do not wear them as well.

However, I am not going to start to nit pick on the specific views of the extremists. I would just like to point out one glaring error in their teaching.

In order for young men to be suitably insentivised to commit suicide, their teachers have pointed them to a part of the Koran; which allegedly says that those who die for Islam, will go to paradise and will be rewarded with 72 virgins.

Enough virgins, I suppose, to get the hearts beating of even the most pious of extremists.

The trouble is, this piece of the Koran appears to have been mistranslated.

It is not 72 virgins that await them, but 72 raisins.

Eh?

Why on earth would 72 raisins be construed as worth dying for?

Well, according to Ishad Manji (author of The Trouble With Islam) who has pointed out this error, in 7th century Arabia raisins were exalted.

The trouble is, in 21st century Britain, a raisin means diddly squat.

So there you have it, suicide bombers are dying for raisins.

They have committed a worthless and futile gesture that will avail them nothing.

Oh one more thing, why has only one moderate wing of the Islamic faith issued a fatwa against suicide bombers?