To those of us brought up on Cricket and Christianity – giving us a C of E ‘middle and leg’ approach to most of life’s great questions – religious fanaticism is an incomprehensible phenomenon: we can entirely understand that men and women can be crazed and wicked.
It is impossible however, to understand their claim to be doing the will of God. The certainty with which Dai’sh terrorists believe that – should they die whilst massacring innocents – they will be welcomed to paradise with the gift of 72 virgins, is perhaps the most bizarre belief of all.
I understand, that now, scholars believe that it all comes down to a mistranslation: the offer is raisins, not virgins. Boy, are these guys going to have to handle disappointment.