In response to reports that recruitment into America’s armed forces is at its lowest level in years, Secretary of Defense Gates has called for increasing the Army and Marine corps by 92,000 troops over the next five years.

On the other hand, Al Qaeda and other Islamist terrorist groups seem to have an unlimited pool of recruits. This is because their followers are brainwashed — through messages that they receive in schools and mosques as well as on television — that if they give their lives for jihad, they will be rewarded in the afterlife with 72 black-eyed virgins.

As Sheik Ahmad Qattan explained on Saudi Iqra TV on January 3, 2005, “The martyrdom seeker … these heroes who stand in line and await their turn … to sacrifice themselves for the sake of their God’s religion … seek the … longest life in the heavens. They want to join their brothers, the martyrs, and to reap martyr’s rewards. … He is married off to 72 black-eyed women.”

Al Qaeda in Iraq, an organization led by the late Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, published a statement addressed to America on January 26, 2005, which discussed what is promised to its recruits: “We have men who love death as you love life. Our fallen [go to] heaven, and yours — to hell. While your reinforcements come from the Jews and the Christians, ours come from the Blessed and Lofty Allah. … Oh the gardens [of Eden], prepare yourselves; oh black-eye [virgins], approach. … The martyrs’ wedding is at hand.” A year and a half later, Zarqawi’s clan celebrated his wedding in Jordan after he was killed.

During the second intifada, the Palestinian Arab press frequently reported the death of suicide bombers by printing wedding announcements and “bridal” pictures.

One announcement read, “In the name of Allah, all merciful, all the compassionate, do not consider who died for the sake of Allah as dead. Rather as alive, the Martyr, Ali-Khadha Al-Yassini, who was wedded to the blackeyed virgin in the Garden of Eternity on the morning of September 16, 2001. Congratulations to him for his wedding.”

A writer for the official Palestinian Arab daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, reported the death of another “groomsman” on October 4, 2001: “The mother of Wail Awad, did not plan on holding a second wedding, after his marriage on August 10, 2001, to his fiancée in a simple ceremony. But yesterday was Wail’s real wedding day, and the angels of the Merciful married him … to ‘the black-eyed,’ as all around [them] rose the cries of joy.”

The mother of a Hezbollah “martyr” Bassel Ala’ Al-din gave an interview to Al-Manar TV on May 22, 2005. “Bassel had a wish,” she said. “Whenever I told him I wanted to marry him off, he would say, ‘Yes, mother, you’ll marry me off like this in paradise.’ And indeed, the martyr Bassel got married in paradise. I congratulate the black-eyed virgins who took Bassel from me.”

Earlier this week, the Global Islamic Media Front posted on Islamist Web sites a 20-page book titled “The Desire of the Souls for the Women of Paradise.” The book includes excerpts from medieval Islamic sources focusing on the characteristics of the virgins who await those who enter paradise after becoming martyrs.

Chants of “Oh, Muslim, arise, there is a black-eyed virgin in paradise. … We will return to Kabul. … Oh, blessings of the all-merciful, the Sunna after the Koran, there is a black-eyed virgin in paradise” were heard on the Islamist Web site Tajded.net, which posted footage of Taliban military commander Mullah Dadallah’s visit to an Al Qaeda base in Afghanistan on December 28.

The video, produced by Al-Sahab Productions, then referred to the September 11, 2001, attacks and the black-eyed virgins who were awarded to the hijackers: “Oh, bin Laden, there is a black-eyed virgin in paradise. … The plane flew above the clouds, and their tower was destroyed in two strikes. … The first strike awoke the sleeping, and the second divided the people into two camps. … On the one hand, the camp of Bush and the leaders of darkness, and on the other hand, the camp of the sheik, with their heads held high. … Whoever sold his life and his property will buy the blessing of the black-eyed virgins.” Islamist Web sites, mosques, and some programming on Arab TV are all helping to recruit young Muslims to jihad by celebrating the 72 black-eyed virgins, nothing stipulates that they must martyr themselves only in the Middle East. According to their narrative on September 11, all the hijackers in America got to enjoy their “wedding day.”

This should serve as a reminder of what we are facing daily in the war on terror.

Mr. Stalinsky is the executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute.