Abstract
The emergence of Muslim suicide-bombers in the final decades of the twentieth century transformed otherwise obscure Islamic traditions(ahadith) into a topic of sensational public interest, as well as ridicule. According to these traditions, Muslim men that die waging jihad against the enemies of Islam will be rewarded by Allah in heaven (jannah) as martyrs (shuhada) and receive seventy-two virgins to enjoy in blissful ecstasy. This notion seems to be particularly attractive to young males who live in otherwise sexually repressive societies (e.g., Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan), perhaps due to stifling economic limitations, and are yet to marry.
Keywords
- Master Narrative
- Eternal Life
- Religious Idea
- Islamist Extremist
- Christian Martyr
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Notes
See Bruce Lincoln, Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11 (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2003).
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Stephen L. Harris, Understanding the Bible: Fifth Edition (Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing, 2000), 22.
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Werblowsky and Wigoder, The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997) 444
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This includes being killed for preaching the message of Islam, speaking the truth in defiance of a tyrant, refusing to compromise ones faith under compulsion or torture, et cetera. See E. Kohlberg, “Shahid,” in The Encyclopedia of Islam: New Edition, Vol. IX, ed. C. E. Bosworth, E. Van Donzel, W. P. Heinrichs, and G. Lecomte (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1997), 203–207.
See Martin Lings, Muhammad (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 1991), 79–80.
B. Todd Lawson, “Martyrdom,” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modem Islamic World, Vol. 3, ed. John L. Esposito (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 58.
Bruce Lincoln, Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11 (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2003), 86.
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© 2011 Jeffry R. Halverson, H. L. Goodall Jr., and Steven R. Corman
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Halverson, J.R., Goodall, H.L., Corman, S.R. (2011). Seventy-Two Virgins. In: Master Narratives of Islamist Extremism. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-230-11723-5_14
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