Sex Sells -- even in Saudi Arabia

Interesting recruitment method and the unintended consequences of a rigid society. The American Thinker has the story:

Sex and the Single Saudi
Pssst! You there! Yeah, you, kid! Wanna see 72 virgins?

It�s the Jihadist answer to dirty French postcards, according to a reformist Muslim critic named Al-Sowayan, writing in the Saudi Gazette. The medium in this case isn�t sexy postcards but cassette tapes:

�So ubiquitous are the religious cassette shops that they are outnumbered only by groceries � The Jihad cassette describes the path that must be followed in order to win martyrdom and deserve the Hoor Al-Een fair females with wide, lovely eyes. It reduces the lofty objective of spiritual martyrdom to mere lust and a selfish search for sexual pleasure, regardless of what martyrdom can achieve for the public interest or for upholding Allah�s word. ...

�The sweetest thing for a teenager, especially in a conservative society like ours, is sex, and the discourse of the religious cassettes is directed toward these very youngsters in their sexual peak of life. They access these youth through the Hoor Al-Een, just as how the youth of our time were drawn to slide pictures of actresses and female singers. So should we not consider sexual suppression in conservative societies as one of the factors leading to such deviation?�

Al-Sowayan sounds like a brave and honest man, raising questions that are absolutely essential -- but extremely difficult to face. Wahhabi society brings up teenage boys isolated from girls their own age. It punishes sexual pleasure while at the same time glorifying it, and encouraging sexual fantasies. That puts both sexes in the most painful bind: Either reject your own feelings, or blow yourself up to achieve them.

The post goes on a bit more and closes with this very good observation:

In criticizing Saudi sexual norms, Al-Sowayan may be pushing the limits. But for civilized values to win, it is essential for more and more Muslim voices to speak out, until finally they know they are the majority.