That “72 virgins” thing. Like much of the belief system driving Islamic extremists, it seems so deranged it’s difficult to give it credence; like a bizarre adolescent sex-mad power fantasy.

About two weeks before the 9/11 attacks, 60 Minutes aired a report on the Palestinian Hamas terror group. They interviewed a man who recruited suicide bombers, and translated into English his comments about the 70 some-odd hot kohl-eyed babes waiting up in paradise for his fledgling killers. Muslim leaders promptly accused CBS of fabricating the quote and demanded a retraction, saying the remarks had been incorrectly translated.

But as this analysis at MEMRI shows, it may be a freaky masturbatory fantasy but they really do believe it: ‘72 Black Eyed Virgins’: A Muslim Debate on the Rewards of Martyrs.

The Hamas movement educates the children in its schools, beginning in kindergarten, to believe that a martyr is given virgins in Paradise. Jack Kelley of USA Today visited Hamas schools in Gaza City, where he saw an 11-year-old boy speak to his class: “I will make my body a bomb that will blast the flesh of Zionists, the sons of pigs and monkeys… I will tear their bodies into little pieces and will cause them more pain than they will ever know.” His classmates shouted in response, “Allah Akhbar,” and his teacher shouted, “May the virgins give you pleasure.” A 16-year-old Hamas youth leader in a Gaza refugee camp told Kelley, “Most boys can’t stop thinking about the virgins.”

Along with the media, Palestinian Muslim clerics also help instill this belief. In an interview with the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram Al-Arabi, Palestinian Authority Mufti Sheikh ‘Ikrima Sabri was asked what he felt when he prayed for the soul of a martyr. He answered: “I feel that the martyr is lucky, because angels bring him to his wedding in Paradise… I spoke with one young man, who told me: ‘I want to marry the black-eyed women in Paradise.’ The next day, he died a martyr’s death. I am certain that his mother was filled with joy over his heavenly wedding. Such a son is worthy of such a mother.’”

A religious aberration that eats its young.