sneezing panda
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzRH3iTQPrk

Laughing? What's that?

Watching a very interesting documentary about the Qu'ran I was amused to learn more about "Christoph Luxenberg's" translation of syriac text.

What a shame for so many muslim men to learn that the (somewhat bizarre) 72 virgins they will have in paradise was merely the incorrect translation of "a bunch of grapes"

No wonder his book caused outrage!

.

"....- Let´s come to the misunderstandings. One of the most glaring errors you cite is that of the virgins promised, in the Islamic paradise.

A. - "We begin from the term ´huri,´ for which the Arabic commentators could not find any meaning other than those heavenly virgins. But if one keeps in mind the derivations from Syro-Aramaic, that expression indicated ´white grapes,´ which is one of the symbolic elements of the Christian paradise, recalled in the Last Supper of Jesus. There´s another Koranic expression, falsely interpreted as ´the children´ or ´the youths´ of paradise: in Aramaic: it designates the fruit of the vine, which in the Koran is compared to pearls. As for the symbols of paradise, these interpretive errors are probably connected to the male monopoly in Koranic commentary and interpretation."