Bummer!
Pakistan Bans Latest Issue of Newsweek:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan has banned the latest issue of Newsweek's international edition, saying an article on new interpretations of the Quran offends Islam.

The information minister said Thursday that customs authorities have been ordered to seize copies of the edition.

"The article is insulting to the Quran," the minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, told The Associated Press. He said officials fear the article could incite violence in a nation wracked by feuding between militant members of the Sunni and Shiite sects of Islam.

"The decision was taken to prevent religious violence and control law and order situation."

So what offended the perpetually offended this time?

Ahmed said it was headlined: "Challenging the Quran."

An article with that title on Newsweek's Web site deals with a new interpretation of Islam's holy book by a German scholar of Semitic languages, who uses the pseudonym Christoph Luxenberg.

He argues that the language of the Quran has been misinterpreted and that in verses detailing the rewards of heaven the text's original word, meaning "white raisins," was mistaken for the word "houris," or dark-eyed virgins, the article says. He also questions Islamic rulings that women cover themselves and says the Quran was originally a Christian document, the article says.

Well, getting a box of raisins instead of the camels, er, virgins certainly puts a damper on the martyr business. Dig right in, wingnuts!




UPDATE: The Newsweek article (hey guys, your site sux) elaborates:

In a note of encouragement to his fellow hijackers, September 11 ringleader Muhammad Atta cheered their impending “marriage in Paradise” to the 72 wide-eyed virgins the Qur’an promises to the departed faithful. Palestinian newspapers have been known to describe the death of a suicide bomber as a “wedding to the black-eyed in eternal Paradise.” But if a German expert on Middle Eastern languages is correct, these hopes of sexual reward in the afterlife are based on a terrible misunderstanding.

ARGUING THAT TODAY’S version of the Qur’an has been mistranscribed from the original text, scholar Christoph Luxenberg says that what are described as “houris” with “swelling breasts” refer to nothing more than “white raisins” and “juicy fruits.”

Juicy fruits sums it up nicely.