Much furor and fuss is being made over a school where Afghan children were brain-washed to be suicide bombers by looking at paintings of heaven while being taught to wire explosives. I would like to clearly state that I am definitely anti-child-suicide-bomb. In fact, despite some of the applications of my research, I am pretty much anti-blowing-things-up in general.
But what got me about the CNN coverage is that there is no trace of irony when quoting a Taliban expert who says things like:
"I have never seen such elaborate paintings about so-called heaven,"
and:
"They say life is a waste here and if you do a good thing you will go to heaven, immediately to heaven. For someone who does not have anything to look forward to, who does not have any opportunities and is living a wretched life, this sort of thing comes as a big incentive."
It's not just Muslim extremists, folks!
In fact, I think that pretty much sums up "The Last Judgement" panel of the Sistine Chapel.
