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Following the 7/7 London suicide bombings there were several articles in British newspapers by British Muslims saying that the bombers were not "true Muslims" as there is nothing in the Koran to justify such actions. Following the attempted bombings of 2 weeks later, it was reported that one of the failed bombers told his neighbour: "If a man dies loyal to Allah, he gets 80 virgins and goes to paradise". I decided to read the Koran for myself. Here's what it says about fighting. "Slay them wherever you find them. Fight against them till idolatry is no more and God's religion reigns supreme" (Sura 2:190), "Seek out your enemies relentlessly" (4:103), "Make war on them till idolatry shall cease and God's religion shall reign supreme" (8:36), "When the sacred months are over slay the idolaters wherever you find them. Arrest them, beseige them and lie in ambush everywhere for them" (9:5), "Believers, make war on the infidels who dwell around you" (9:121), "When you meet the unbelievers on the battlefield strike off their heads" (47:3), "Prophet, make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and deal sternly with them. Hell shall be their home, evil their fate" (66:7). For those that may not be up for the fight, there are words of encouragement: "Fighting is obligatory, much as you dislike it" (2:216), "Believers who stay at home are not equal to those that fight for the cause of God" (4:93), God's will is mentioned in Sura 8:12 as "Give courage to the believers. I shall cast terror into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads, strike off the very tips of their fingers", "If you do not fight He will punish you sternly and replace you by other men" (9:37). Should a believer decide not to fight: "Anyone who turns their backs on infidels on the march, except for tactical reasons, will go to Hell" (8:12), "If anyone thinks that God will not give victory to His apostle in this world and the world to come, let him tie a rope to the ceiling of his house and hang himself" (22:14). Now, what about paradise. Apparently the believers are to be treated to "goodly mansions" (9:72), "soft couches, bracelets of gold, garments of fine green silk" (18:30), "bashful, dark-eyed virgins, as chaste as the sheltered eggs of ostriches" (37:48), "rivers of purest water, and rivers of milk for ever fresh; rivers of wine delectable to those that drink it, and rivers of clearest honey" (47:15), "young boys of their own, as fair as virgin pearls" (52:13), "dark-eyed virgins sheltering in their tents" (55:66), "jewelled couches and there shall wait on them immortal youths with bowls and ewers and a cup of purest wine" (56:6) and "they shall be attended by boys graced with eternal youth, who to the beholder's eyes will seem like sprinkled pearls" (76:9), "high-bosomed maidens for companions" (78:31), "pure wine to drink, securely sealed, whose very dregs are musk" (83:22). One thing I found odd were the references to fine wine in paradise, as Sura 5:90 declares that "Wine is an abomination devised by Satan". So far, it seemed to me that yes the Koran justifies suicide bombing, and yes there is the bait of virgins in paradise to hook in young men to perform such a deed. But there was more to disturb me! According to Sura 65:4 if a man wishes to divorce his wife and his wife has not started menstruating then he has to wait 3 months. A footnote at the bottom of that page states that child wives were common. It appears then that pedophilia is permissible in Islam, so long as the perpetrator marries his victim. The footnote to Sura 33:50 states that Mohammed had 9 wives, apart from his slave girls; Sura 33:50 states that God gave Mohammed slave-girls as "booty". (I read in the book "Saharasia" that one of Mohammed's wives was a 9 year old girl who brought her toys with her when she moved into his tent.) Sura 4:1 states that a man may have up to 4 wives if he treats them equally, but if he can't treat them equally then he can marry any number of slave-girls. The one scrap of positivity I detected in this book was in Sura 51:18 which states that goods should be shared with the beggars and the deprived. Islam now appears to have split itself into sects (Shia, Sunni, Wahhabi). Therefore, according to the Koran, no-one should believe in it because of the following statement: "Have nothing to do with those who have split up their religion into sects" (6:158). Therefore, according to the Koran, it seems that no-one should have anything to do with Islam. Cool!