Abducted Boy Died in Islamic Exorcism Ceremony in New Mexico Desert

Religious lunacy is not restricted to Islam by any means. But madness, religious or otherwise, seems to always end up in the suffering of children.

Personal items from the New Mexico compound where 11 malnourished children were found earlier this month © Andrew Hay / Reuters

A missing three-year-old boy, whose remains were discovered (3rd story on link) buried at a compound in the New Mexico desert, had died during an Islamic ritual ceremony to cast out demonic spirits, a prosecutor told a court hearing on Monday.

Prosecutor John Lovelace made his statement at the pretrial hearing of five adults accused of multiple counts of child abuse, for running an off-the-grid compound in the New Mexico desert where 11 malnourished children were found living in squalor earlier this month.

Three-year-old Abdul Ghani reportedly died as his father performed an Islamic ceremony known as a ruqya – performed by some believers to cast out evil spirits known as jinn - on him, Lovelace claimed in court. The prosecutor said that the other children at the compound had revealed the macabre details of Ghani’s death to investigators after the compound was raided.

The boy’s body was washed several times, wrapped in a sheet, and buried near the compound, Lovelace claimed.

Ghani suffered from seizures, and prosecutors said that his family believed him to be possessed by demonic spirits. The family believed that once his demons were cast out, the boy would become the embodiment of Jesus Christ, and direct the adults to commit "violent acts" against the government.

Here, we have a clear sign that there was something demonic present, not in the boy, but in the father. Only Satan could even suggest that Jesus Christ would direct anyone to commit violent acts. 

The boy’s father, Siraj ibn Wahhaj, was arrested at the compound, where police found him heavily armed. Also arrested were Wahhaj’s wife, Jany Leveille, 35, two sisters, Hujrah, 38, and Subhannah, 35, as well as another male, identified as Lucas Morten, 40.

Siraj ibn Wahhaj is accused of abducting the boy from Georgia in November. The boy had lived there with his mother, Wahhaj’s ex-wife.  

At Monday’s hearing, Lovelace claimed that the children were trained to use weapons and to defend the compound in the event of an FBI raid. Prosecutors have also alleged that Wahhaj was training the children to commit school shootings.

Local Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe described Wahhaj as an “extremist of the Muslim belief,” but did not elaborate on the definition. Wahhaj’s father said that the label sounded “crazy,” but did say that his son could be high-strung and “extreme” at times.

Wahhaj is the estranged son of a prominent New York Imam, Siraj Wahhaj. Wahhaj Sr. told reporters that all of the 11 children found at the compound are his grandchildren, and three of the suspects are his children.

The imam said that he tipped police off to the situation inside the compound after receiving a message from his daughter, who is among the suspects.

"She said, 'We need some food, we're starving,'" the imam said. His daughter then provided a location to send food, and the family turned that address over to police. Upon entering the compound, police found “unbelievable” scenes of poverty and deprivation.

“These children were hungry, they were thirsty, they were filthy,” said Sheriff Hogrefe. The Sheriff told reporters last week that the children had no shoes and were dressed in rags. The only food found inside the compound was a box of rice and some potatoes.

The imam said that his children disappeared in December 2017 and quickly "cut ties, not only with me, with their brothers and their sisters and their mother." He said the family has had "no direct contact with any of them" since then. "We have been meeting with law enforcement since day one," Wahhaj said, describing his efforts to track down his children and grandchildren.

Wahhaj the elder has been praised for the role his Brooklyn mosque plays in the local community, and has been commended by the NYPD for his work with an anti-drug campaign in the 1980s. However, he was also included on a list of people who "may be alleged as co-conspirators" in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York. Several people linked to the attack reportedly attended his mosque at the time, and the mosque has also attracted speakers who have been described as radical.

All five defendants were released on unsecured bond on Monday, as the judge said the prosecution failed to provide concrete evidence that they posed a danger to the community around them or to their children, who are now in state custody. The defendants will only pay bond if they breach the terms of their release.

I'm not sure that judge was firing on all cylinders when he made that call. Seems pretty risky to me.

How a Scientist Learned to Work with Exorcists

As a psychiatrist, I diagnose mental illness

also, I help spot demonic possession

By Richard Gallagher
Richard Gallagher is a board-certified psychiatrist and a professor of clinical psychiatry at New York Medical College. He is at work on a book about demonic possession in the United States.

Matt Rota for The Washington Post

In the late 1980s, I was introduced to a self-styled Satanic high priestess. She called herself a witch and dressed the part, with flowing dark clothes and black eye shadow around to her temples. In our many discussions, she acknowledged worshipping Satan as his “queen.”

I’m a man of science and a lover of history; after studying the classics at Princeton, I trained in psychiatry at Yale and in psychoanalysis at Columbia. That background is why a Catholic priest had asked my professional opinion, which I offered pro bono, about whether this woman was suffering from a mental disorder.

This was at the height of the national panic about Satanism. (In a case that helped induce the hysteria, Virginia McMartin and others had recently been charged with alleged Satanic ritual abuse at a Los Angeles preschool; the charges were later dropped.) So I was inclined to skepticism. But my subject’s behavior exceeded what I could explain with my training. She could tell some people their secret weaknesses, such as undue pride. She knew how individuals she’d never known had died, including my mother and her fatal case of ovarian cancer. Six people later vouched to me that, during her exorcisms, they heard her speaking multiple languages, including Latin, completely unfamiliar to her outside of her trances. This was not psychosis; it was what I can only describe as paranormal ability. I concluded that she was possessed. Much later, she permitted me to tell her story.

The priest who had asked for my opinion of this bizarre case was the most experienced exorcist in the country at the time, an erudite and sensible man. I had told him that, even as a practicing Catholic, I wasn’t likely to go in for a lot of hocus-pocus. “Well,” he replied, “unless we thought you were not easily fooled, we would hardly have wanted you to assist us.”

So began an unlikely partnership. For the past two-and-a-half decades and over several hundred consultations, I’ve helped clergy from multiple denominations and faiths to filter episodes of mental illness — which represent the overwhelming majority of cases — from, literally, the devil’s work. It’s an unlikely role for an academic physician, but I don’t see these two aspects of my career in conflict. The same habits that shape what I do as a professor and psychiatrist — open-mindedness, respect for evidence and compassion for suffering people — led me to aid in the work of discerning attacks by what I believe are evil spirits and, just as critically, differentiating these extremely rare events from medical conditions.

Is it possible to be a sophisticated psychiatrist and believe that evil spirits are, however seldom, assailing humans? Most of my scientific colleagues and friends say no, because of their frequent contact with patients who are deluded about demons, their general skepticism of the supernatural, and their commitment to employ only standard, peer-reviewed treatments that do not potentially mislead (a definite risk) or harm vulnerable patients. But careful observation of the evidence presented to me in my career has led me to believe that certain extremely uncommon cases can be explained no other way.

*          *          *          *          *          *          *

The Vatican does not track global or countrywide exorcism, but in my experience and according to the priests I meet, demand is rising. The United States is home to about 50 “stable” exorcists — those who have been designated by bishops to combat demonic activity on a semi-regular basis — up from just 12 a decade ago, according to the Rev. Vincent Lampert, an Indianapolis-based priest-exorcist who is active in the International Association of Exorcists. (He receives about 20 inquiries per week, double the number from when his bishop appointed him in 2005.)

The Catholic Church has responded by offering greater resources for clergy members who wish to address the problem. In 2010, for instance, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops organized a meeting in Baltimore for interested clergy. In 2014, Pope Francis formally recognized the IAE, 400 members of which are to convene in Rome this October. Members believe in such strange cases because they are constantly called upon to help. (I served for a time as a scientific adviser on the group’s governing board.)

Unfortunately, not all clergy involved in this complex field are as cautious as the priest who first approached me. In some circles, there is a tendency to become overly preoccupied with putative demonic explanations and to see the devil everywhere. Fundamentalist misdiagnoses and absurd or even dangerous “treatments,” such as beating victims, have sometimes occurred, especially in developing countries. This is perhaps why exorcism has a negative connotation in some quarters. People with psychological problems should receive psychological treatment.

But I believe I’ve seen the real thing. Assaults upon individuals are classified either as “demonic possessions” or as the slightly more common but less intense attacks usually called “oppressions.” A possessed individual may suddenly, in a type of trance, voice statements of astonishing venom and contempt for religion, while understanding and speaking various foreign languages previously unknown to them. The subject might also exhibit enormous strength or even the extraordinarily rare phenomenon of levitation. (I have not witnessed a levitation myself, but half a dozen people I work with vow that they’ve seen it in the course of their exorcisms.) He or she might demonstrate “hidden knowledge” of all sorts of things — like how a stranger’s loved ones died, what secret sins she has committed, even where people are at a given moment. These are skills that cannot be explained except by special psychic or preternatural ability.

I have personally encountered these rationally inexplicable features, along with other paranormal phenomena. My vantage is unusual: As a consulting doctor, I think I have seen more cases of possession than any other physician in the world.

Most of the people I evaluate in this role suffer from the more prosaic problems of a medical disorder. Anyone even faintly familiar with mental illnesses knows that individuals who think they are being attacked by malign spirits are generally experiencing nothing of the sort. Practitioners see psychotic patients all the time who claim to see or hear demons; histrionic or highly suggestible individuals, such as those suffering from dissociative identity syndromes; and patients with personality disorders who are prone to misinterpret destructive feelings, in what exorcists sometimes call a “pseudo-possession,” via the defense mechanism of an externalizing projection. But what am I supposed to make of patients who unexpectedly start speaking perfect Latin?

I approach each situation with an initial skepticism. I technically do not make my own “diagnosis” of possession but inform the clergy that the symptoms in question have no conceivable medical cause.

I am aware of the way many psychiatrists view this sort of work. While the American Psychiatric Association has no official opinion on these affairs, the field (like society at large) is full of unpersuadable skeptics and occasionally doctrinaire materialists who are often oddly vitriolic in their opposition to all things spiritual. My job is to assist people seeking help, not to convince doctors who are not subject to suasion. Yet I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the number of psychiatrists and other mental health practitioners nowadays who are open to entertaining such hypotheses. Many believe exactly what I do, though they may be reluctant to speak out.

*          *          *          *          *          *          *

As a man of reason, I’ve had to rationalize the seemingly irrational. Questions about how a scientifically trained physician can believe “such outdated and unscientific nonsense,” as I’ve been asked, have a simple answer. I honestly weigh the evidence. I have been told simplistically that levitation defies the laws of gravity, and, well, of course it does! We are not dealing here with purely material reality, but with the spiritual realm.

One cannot force these creatures to undergo lab studies or submit to scientific manipulation; they will also hardly allow themselves to be easily recorded by video equipment, as skeptics sometimes demand. (The official Catholic Catechism holds that demons are sentient and possess their own wills; as they are fallen angels, they are also craftier than humans. That’s how they sow confusion and seed doubt, after all.) Nor does the church wish to compromise a sufferer’s privacy, any more than doctors want to compromise a patient’s confidentiality.

Ignorance and superstition have often surrounded stories of demonic possession in various cultures, and surely many alleged episodes can be explained by fraud, chicanery or mental pathology. But anthropologists agree that nearly all cultures have believed in spirits, and the vast majority of societies (including our own) have recorded dramatic stories of spirit possession. Despite varying interpretations, multiple depictions of the same phenomena in astonishingly consistent ways offer cumulative evidence of their credibility.

As a psychoanalyst, a blanket rejection of the possibility of demonic attacks seems less logical, and often wishful in nature, than a careful appraisal of the facts. As I see it, the evidence for possession is like the evidence for George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware. In both cases, written historical accounts with numerous sound witnesses testify to their accuracy.

In the end, however, it was not an academic or dogmatic view that propelled me into this line of work. I was asked to consult about people in pain. I have always thought that, if requested to help a tortured person, a physician should not arbitrarily refuse to get involved. Those who dismiss these cases unwittingly prevent patients from receiving the help they desperately require, either by failing to recommend them for psychiatric treatment (which most clearly need) or by not informing their spiritual ministers that something beyond a mental or other illness seems to be the issue. For any person of science or faith, it should be impossible to turn one’s back on a tormented soul.

Many years ago, long before I became a Christian, I watched The Exorcist - the movie with Linda Blair. It convinced me that evil exists in the form of some kind of beings. It was clear to me that that movie could not have been made without the very presence of evil entities.

UAE Dad Tortures Daughter to Death in Exorcism Attempt

Dubai: An Emirati father brutally tortured his eight-year-old daughter to death and injured her seven-year-old sister because he wanted to exorcise jinn from their bodies, Gulf News learnt yesterday.

This story is a follow-up to one I just posted at http://northwoodssaveachild.blogspot.ca/2014/01/child-sexual-abusers-may-face-more-than.html. In that piece it was revealed that a new 'child's rights' law was drafted, originally named Wadeema's Law, it was later changed to Child Rights Law.

The 29-year-old father, Hamad S., thought jinn possessed his daughters so he tortured them more because he was provoked every time the girls laughed when he beat them, said a police lieutenant during prosecution questioning.

Prosecutors charged Hamad and his 27-year-old Emirati girlfriend, Al Onoud A., with illegally grounding the two daughters in a flat and torturing eight-year-old Wudeema to death and injuring seven-year-old Meera. The latter sustained 10 per cent permanent disability.

Gulf News obtained a copy of the charges, in which the lieutenant cited Hamad alleging that he used excessive beating and torturing to exorcise the jinn from his daughters’ bodies. Jinn, apparently, is evil, perhaps demonic spirits.

Wadeema

Hamad and Al Onoud entered their pleas before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Wednesday.

“I did not torture Wudeema to death. I took Meera to Rashid Hospital to treat her broken arm… I didn’t torture her. I did not confine them, but I used to take them out,” Hamad told Presiding Judge Maher Salama Al Mahdi yesterday.

Al Onoud surprised the crammed court when she contended: “Hamad did not do anything to the girls. I beat and tortured them with hot water, electric wire, an iron… I electrocuted them with the taser gun.”

Senior Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Ali Rustom, Head of Family and Juveniles Prosecution, asked the court to implement a capital punishment against the suspects. The couple was also accused of hiding Wudeema’s body by burying it without obtaining proper permission.

“I was present with Hamad when he buried Wudeema,” claimed Al Onoud, who is believed to be pregnant.
Hamad admitted that he buried his dead daughter in Al Badayer area in Sharjah.

Concerning the charge of torturing Meera and causing her a permanent disability, Hamad maintained: “The Taser gun was not working. I didn’t torture her.”

The father asked the court to get a copy of the medical report from Rashid Hospital to prove that he took Meera for treatment when her arm was fractured.

Following Wednesday’s hearing, the mother was heard shouting at Al Onoud: “You will go to hell and be tortured there.”

Two lawyers will be appointed to defend the suspects and prosecution witnesses will testify when the court reconvenes on Wednesday.

Saood Juma’a Saeed, grand father of Wadeema shows her photo
who was allegedly killed by her father, as grand mother
Eida Mohammad Salman and uncle Mohammad looks on

.

Teenage Girl Exorcists

Brynne Larson and Tess and Savannah Scherkenback are all-American girls from Arizona, who enjoy martial arts and horse riding. But something sets them apart from most teenagers - they perform public exorcisms and often appear on TV chat shows.

Eighteen-year-old Brynne met sisters Tess and Savannah about eight years ago at a karate class.

"We just really hit it off," says Savannah, aged 21. "I don't know what happens but somehow you bond when you're punching one another and throwing knees. We were working out together, learning how to fight and how to defend ourselves and defend others."

The girls are now karate black belts, but because of their particular Christian beliefs, they have also decided to do battle, they say, against evil spirits or demons. They believe that these demons can possess a human being and cause suffering, depression or addiction.

"A demon can't just come into anybody whenever it chooses too, God doesn't allow that," says Brynne.

"What happens is when someone sins or does something, or something's done to them that allows the demon to come into them, that's called the legal right or the reason that it's there."

The girls have been trained by Brynne's father, the Rev Bob Larson, who says he has performed over 15,000 exorcisms. They have appeared alongside him in America and overseas, including the UK.

"Every single country has a specific kind of demon," says Tess, 18, who loves music and reading.

The girls believe that the UK in particular is a hotbed for "witchcraft" because of the popularity of J K Rowling's Harry Potter books.

"The spells and things that you're reading in the Harry Potter books, those aren't just something that are made up, those are actual spells. Those are things that came from witchcraft books," says Tess.

The teenage exorcists are skilled in martial arts and black belts in karate.

The girls see themselves as "freedom fighters". During an exorcism they brandish silver crosses and Bibles while confronting the so-called demon to make it return to hell.

"I'd have to say my special skills [are] probably the enforcer or the lead exorcist. I can take on those demons," says Brynne.

The teenage exorcists are greeted on stage as if they were celebrities. There is applause and they announce to the audience that they look forward to "kicking some demon butt".

But Brynne denies that it's a theatrical performance.

"Honestly, I've never tried to do any showmanship at all, I'm just demonstrating the power of God," says Brynne. "We're not doing it to play up to the cameras. I've seen some amazing things in private with nobody there."

The girls' mentor, Brynne's father, disagrees with critics who say it's dangerous to teach teenagers to perform exorcisms.

"We think it's OK to train teenagers to get drunk and have sex, but to do moral things for God, oh let's not train them to do that," says Larson.

He asks for a voluntary donation of a couple of hundred dollars or pounds when he and the girls perform a one-to-one exorcism, and rejects the idea that spiritual services have to be free of charge.

"Money and motives, anytime someone is in God's work it always comes up," he says.

"People will pay thousands of dollars to go to drug rehab or to pay psychiatrists but there's this idea that spirituality needs to be for free.

"The average megachurch pastor in America, it's not uncommon for them to make up to $1m a year. Well I can assure you we are nowhere near that."

Brynne, Tess and Savannah perform an exorcism in Ukraine.

Exorcism is an ancient practice and one that appears in many different religions, but even some believers doubt the existence of demons.

Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, saw spirit possession as a neurotic delusion, and demons as repressed "instinctual impulses".

Before undertaking a one-to-one exorcism, Larson says he asks clients to complete a psychiatric questionnaire to identify if they have any mental health problems. He says it is important for anyone with mental health problems to receive medical care and psychological support.

Brynne's mother Laura Larson, says the girls are sincerely trying to help people.

"This is a family who lives by what they believe," says Laura, "and I think the teenage exorcists are making a difference, whether you believe in what they do or not, they are committed and they stand by what they believe."

She did not actively encourage her daughter Brynne to become an exorcist she says.

"Given the environment you would think that we would have been grooming them at the table, 'OK now how do you define this? What kind of demon is this?' But that really wasn't the approach.

"In fact I was the opposite, I didn't really keep her from doing deliverances but I didn't encourage her.

"Then her friends Tess and Savannah just started getting this training and she said, 'Mum can I please go along, I really want to learn,' and of course I mean I couldn't say no".

Tess, Savannah and Brynne have all been home-schooled. In Brynne's case it was because her father's profession led the family to travel widely.

"With going [to] over 20 countries and stuff, I don't really have time to go to school, but I'll just sit at my desk and work on calculus or read all my books," she says. "This is so much better than going to a stinky old school room."

Brynne and Tess have been awarded places at college this year, while Savannah is already a college student. But as well as continuing their education they are determined to continue their spiritual battle against what they see as the forces of evil.

Teen Exorcists will be broadcast on Thursday 12 September at 21:00 BST on BBC Three. Or catch up later on BBC iPlayer.