A miracle calling for obedience to God, or merely a window crying out for a cleaning job? Malaysia’s Sime Darby Medical Centre has become a major attraction for Catholic believers coming to pray and light candles after an image resembling the Virgin Mary developed on the exterior of the building:
Photo: Goya, "Saint Francis of Borgia performs an Exorcism" (PD)
Disinfo.com readers will undoubtedly remember Monday’s post about four Haitian children beaten to death during an exorcism. Here is a similar case, this time from Malaysia: A three year-old girl has suffocated during what is reported to be a 20 hour exorcism:
“Acting on a tip-off, police entered the house and broke down a bedroom door only to find eight people including a foreign maid covered with a blanket and with the victim pinned under them,” he said.
“They were chanting in the room. Police believe they were involved in an exorcism ritual to drive away evil spirits.”
The Star newspaper said the ritual had lasted 20 hours. Azman said the ritual had continued for many hours but could not confirm how many.
Read more at The Raw Story:… Read the rest
Oh, if only it were the Hague. Or better yet, the U.S. Supreme Court. I guess it’s a start, though. Via Common Dreams:
Former President George W Bush, his vice president, Dick Cheney, and six other members of his administration have been found guilty of war crimes by a tribunal in Malaysia.
Bush, Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and five of their legal advisers were tried in their absence and convicted on Saturday.
Victims of torture told a panel of five judges in Kuala Lumpur of their suffering at the hands of US soldiers and contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the evidence, Briton Moazzam Begg, an ex-Guantanamo detainee, said he was beaten, put in a hood and left in solitary confinement. Iraqi woman Jameelah Abbas Hameedi said she was stripped and humiliated in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
Transcripts of the five-day trial will be sent to the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, the United Nations and the Security Council.
For everyone who hates Valentine’s Day for its consumerist tradition, be glad you have the choice whether or not to celebrate. Large groups of Muslims in Malaysia were arrested yesterday for trying to give their unmarried counterparts heart-shaped candy and a special night. BBC News reports:
Islamic morality police in Malaysia have arrested more than 80 Muslims in an operation to stop them celebrating Valentine’s Day.
Officers raided budget hotels in the central state of Selangor and capital, Kuala Lumpur, detaining unmarried Muslim couples who were sharing rooms.
The religious authorities in Malaysia say Valentine’s Day is synonymous with immoral activities.
Those arrested could be jailed for up to two years if convicted.
The anti-Valentine’s Day campaign by the country’s Islamic authorities goes back to a fatwa issued in 2005.
[Continues at BBC News]… Read the rest
Malaysia’s answer to the high number of unmarried mothers and abandoned babies is an anonymous drop off service. Via BBC:
The cries of an abandoned baby boy echo in the nursery at Orphancare, a Malaysian charity that helps orphans find adoptive parents.
He is the only child here and does not have a name. But in many ways he is seen as one of the lucky ones.
He was left in a baby “hatch” – the first in the country – designed to allow mothers to leave their babies anonymously.
The charity hopes it will rescue more unwanted newborns, as the authorities seek to stem the rising number of abandoned babies.
Close to 500 babies have been found abandoned since 2005. Some were left in Muslim prayer halls, on doorsteps and even in rubbish bins. Many are found dead.
It is thought these children are mainly abandoned by single mothers.
