Religion News Blog : Challenging the Quran
“In a note of encouragement to his fellow hijackers, September 11 ringleader Muhammad Atta cheered their impending �marriage in Paradise� to the 72 wide-eyed virgins the Qur�an promises to the departed faithful. Palestinian newspapers have been known to describe the death of a suicide bomber as a �wedding to the black-eyed in eternal Paradise.� But if a German expert on Middle Eastern languages is correct, these hopes of sexual reward in the afterlife are based on a terrible misunderstanding.
Arguing that today’s version of the Qur�an has been mistranscribed from the original text, scholar Christoph Luxenberg says that what are described as �houris� with �swelling breasts� refer to nothing more than �white raisins� and �juicy fruits.�”