The Sunday Comics: Pat Robertson, eat your heart out

Pat Robertson, who needs no introduction, caused a bit of a stir after the recent Haiti earthquake when he drug out an old urban legend about that country's founders and a "pact with the devil." Well, move over Pat! This Iranian cleric has just bested you when it comes to theories about the cause of earthquakes.

Tehran, Apr 17: An Iranian cleric has proclaimed that inappropriately [dressed] women leading to extramarital affairs are the resons behind the devastating earthquakes that frequently rattle the country.

Speaking to [worshippers] at the Friday prayers here on Apr 16, senior cleric Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi said, "Many women who dress inappropriately ... cause youths to go astray, taint their chastity and incite extramarital sex in society, which increases earthquakes."

"Calamities are the result of people's deeds...We have no way but conform to Islam to ward off dangers," the [religious] leader is quoted as saying in newspaper reports.

The Islamic laws prescribe a strict dress code for women. Females are expected to cover hair and bodily contours in public or face punishment and fine.

However, the cleric was probably referring to the women who appear on the streets with well-fitted clothes and layers of make-up as the evil forces behind the natural calamities.

Were it not for the last link in this cleric's chain, his comments would actually make a lot of sense. Women dress inappropriately (although "inappropriately" is defined much more strictly in Islamic countries), youths go astray, lose their chastity, and the result is extramarital sex. Few would dispute this. It is the natural course of fallen race in a fallen world. But as for rampant extramarital sex being the cause of earthquakes, well, that's a bit of a stretch.