I recently saw this video on YouTube and had to share it. It is the account of a leading Muslim cleric on the sexual delights that men will find in paradise. We have followed the plight of women in many Muslim countries on this blog and this video reveals the attitude that fosters such abuse, in my view. Many of us were unaware of the promise of the 72 virgins waiting for the faithful in Paradise until we were told that 9-11 hijackers believed in this promise. This video shows a deep-seated problem with women for his cleric, who wishes to pass it along to his followers.

The man speaking is Saudi Cleric Muhammad Al-Munajid who promises Muslim men that they will not only meet dozens of virgins set aside for them in paradise but those virgins will “yearn for their husbands.”

He explains that they will be better than Earth women who are marred by “menstruation, from blood for 40 days after childbirth from vaginal bleeding and from diseases.” Conversely, “Women in paradise are pure, unblemished, menstraution-free, free of feces, urine, phlegm, children” and “Allah . . . Allah has cleaned them of all impure and foul things in both appearance and character.” He also assures the listeners that “[t]hey are all the same age, morally and physically beautiful…..each of them so beautiful that you can see the bone-marrow through the delicate flesh on their legs.”

By the way, many may be concerned that one of their dozens of virgins might wander in paradise for the first dashing dead Mujahideen that comes along. Rest assured, it is covered: “They (the women) will be restricted to their tents – locked up for the husband . . . In this world men work hard and tire themselves out screwing, but in Paradise, you’ll have the strength of 100 men when it comes to sex.”

The prowess aspects was articulated by Qur’anic commentator al-Suyuti from the sixteenth century who elaborated on such relations: “Each time we sleep with a Houri we find her virgin. Besides, the penis of the Elected never softens. The erection is eternal; the sensation that you feel each time you make love is utterly delicious and out of this world and were you to experience it in this world you would faint.”

The rest of quote from al-Suyuti is too graphic to reproduce on a family blog.

My concern is how such views influence the treatment of women on Earth. There is a well-documented problem of rape in Middle Eastern countries, where unescorted women are treated as self-proclaimed prostitutes. It also would appear to fuel the obsession with marrying girls as young as ten.

This same cleric previously called for the death of Mickey Mouse (I had to look at the tapes side-by-side to make sure they were not the same interview):

While I hope that this is an extremist among Muslim clerics, it is hard to imagine even starting a conversation on human rights with a person who holds such views of women. It also illuminates the difficulty in places like Afghanistan where we have American women dying to defend some areas where women are treated as little more than chattel.

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