Hat tip to the redoubtable Pericles for this marvel of Arabian logic.

A Muslim Saudi professor says the earthquake and tsunami in south Asia were punishment from Allah for homosexuality and fornication committed by residents and visitors of affected countries at Christmastime.

A television interview of Sheik Fawzan Al-Fawzan, a professor at the Al-Imam University, was translated and posted on the Internet by the Middle East Media Research Institute TV Monitor Project, or MEMRI TV. The interview can be viewed on MEMRI’s website.

“These great tragedies and collective punishments that are wiping out villages, towns, cities and even entire countries, are Allah’s punishments of the people of these countries, even if they are Muslims,” stated Al-Fawzan. “Some of our forefathers said that if there is usury and fornication in a certain village, Allah permits its destruction.”

The professor singled out beach resorts as places of sexual sin.

“We know that at these resorts, which unfortunately exist in Islamic and other countries in south Asia, and especially at Christmas, fornication and sexual perversion of all kinds are rampant,” he said. “The fact that it happened at this particular time is a sign from Allah. It happened at Christmas, when fornicators and corrupt people from all over the world come to commit fornication and sexual perversion. That’s when this tragedy took place, striking them all and destroyed everything. It turned the land into wasteland, where only the cries of the ravens are heard. I say this is a great sign and punishment on which Muslims should reflect.”

Al-Fawzan urged Muslims to atone for their sin.

“All that’s left for us to do is to ask for forgiveness We must atone for our sins and for the acts of the stupid people among us and improve our condition. We must fight fornication, homosexuality, usury, fight the corruption on the face of the earth, and the disregard of the lives of protected people.”