Indian-born American journalist Fareed Zakaria hosts a series on CNN called "Why They Hate Us," where he examines whether radicals distort verses from the Quran to suit their own purposes.
In his latest hour long special with Irshad Manji, he brings up the story of the 72 virgins in Islam and questions whether the Quran promises men virgins... or raisins.
"Imagine the surprise of the terrorist who expected something completely different," Zakaria says towards the end of the video .
In Islam, the concept of the 72 virgins (houri) is grounded in Quranic text, which describes a sensual Paradise where men are promised a virgin with "full grown" breasts. This promise is not limited to martyrs, but applies to all males.
Zakaria, whose father was an Islamic scholar, claims that the Quran never says men will be rewarded with 72 virgins.
Although the number of virgins is not clear in the Quran, the promise of rewarding men with a "virgin" is more than obvious in a number of Islamic verses where physical and sexual attributes make it quite clear including "white skinned," "hairless," and "untouched."
If all these attributes can be applied to a raisin... then I want a taste of that raisin right now!
In one of the six major Hadith collections Sunan Ibn Majah, it states that "every male admitted into Paradise will be given eternal erections and wed to 72 wives."
The false myth of "white raisins" is actually a concept that was proposed by modern author Christoph Luxenberg, but has been debunked.
Terrorists misuse and twist the Islamic concepts of jihad and justice; Zakaria would have been better off using his show to educate the world on their true meaning rather than trying to claim that Muslims can't read Quranic Arabic.