To tell the truth, I never gave much thought to the notion of whether Che Guevara met God. Even when I saw Glenn Reynolds' link to Samizdata, I thought the whole thing must be someone's idea of a sick joke.

The title of the Times Article that Brian Micklethwait linked -- "Where do you stand in the new culture wars?" Followed by a "Culture War quiz"?

I mean, Come on! Che meets God? Surely that's gotta be humor.

So I read on:

A glorious culture clash took place in Iran recently that made me laugh out loud. The children of Che Guevara, the revolutionary pin-up, had been invited to Tehran University to commemorate the 40th anniversary of their father's death and celebrate the growing solidarity between "the left and revolutionary Islam" at a conference partly paid for by Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president.

There were fraternal greetings and smiles all round as America's "earth-devouring ambitions" were denounced. But then one of the speakers, Hajj Saeed Qassemi, the co-ordinator of the Association of Volunteers for Suicide-Martyrdom (who presumably remains selflessly alive for the cause), revealed that Che was a "truly religious man who believed in God and hated communism and the Soviet Union".

Che's daughter Aleida wondered if something might have been lost in translation. "My father never mentioned God," she said, to the consternation of the audience. "He never met God." During the commotion, Aleida and her brother were led swiftly out of the hall and escorted back to their hotel. "By the end of the day, the two Guevaras had become non-persons. The state-controlled media suddenly forgot their existence," the Iranian writer Amir Taheri noted.

After their departure, Qassemi went on to claim that Fidel Castro, the "supreme guide" of Guevara, was also a man of God. "The Soviet Union is gone," he affirmed. "The leadership of the downtrodden has passed to our Islamic republic. Those who wish to destroy America must understand the reality and not be clever with words."

So even if this were serious, the question would more properly be whether Che met Allah, right? You know, the guy in the sky with the 72 virgins?

Someone already seems to have thought about this, as I found a cartoon of Che dressed for the occasion:

But are we really serious yet with this unholy alliance between blasphemous commies and religious crackpots? Come on.

And hey, what's with that "Association of Volunteers for Suicide-Martyrdom"? Are they one of those legitimate "religious" charities? Sounds more like a sick joke to me, especially the acronym.

AVSM?

Um, sorry, but I've been around the block a few times, and I know a raunchy ad category catering to San Francisco's Folsom Street set when I see one.

So let's just cut the phony religious crap, OK?

There are plenty of ways for the blasphemous Che to play games with his religious friends.

CHE: "72 virgins my ass!"

(After translating this from Spanish into Arabic, Osama dutifullly follows Che's religious instructions....)

Adds Brian Micklethwait to the Times discussion:

LOL indeed.

I am actually quite optimistic that at least some (more) lefties will wake up, as time goes by, to the absurdity of them being in alliance with radical Islamists. The only rationale for this otherwise ridiculous arrangement is (see above) that the enemy of your enemy (the USA) is your friend, no matter what.

UPDATE: My deepest thanks to Glenn Reynolds for linking this post! Welcome all!

(I hope that I have not offended anyone except those in need of a good offense...)