Village 'witches' beaten in India

[theHandpuppet]

There is a video at the link below but be warned, it is graphic and disturbing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8315980.stm
Village 'witches' beaten in India
By Salman Ravi
BBC News, Ranchi

Five women were paraded naked, beaten and forced to eat human excrement by villagers after being branded as witches in India's Jharkhand state.

Local police said the victims were Muslim widows who had been labelled as witches by a local cleric.

<snipping>

Hundreds of people, mostly women, have been killed in India because their neighbours thought they were witches.

Experts say superstitious beliefs are behind some of these attacks, but there are occasions when people - especially widows - are targeted for their land and property.

[imdjh]

1. Even if there is a profit motive, idiots are still required for it to work. nt

[theHandpuppet]

3. There's another thing that really disturbed me about the video

It appeared to me that it was other women doing most of the beating.

[niyad]

2. so much for civilized society

[Double T]

4. Islamic/muslim religion and its followers are absolutely barbaric!

If crashing planes into buildings isn't enough to turn your stomach; maybe this behavior toward 'witches' will be enough to turn your mind and support for Islamic/muslim followers.

[eShirl]

10. Actually, my reaction was, "So, not all 'witch' persecutors are Christians."

[thunder rising]

5. India? A 3rd world country? Where do all the genius H1-Bs come from. What? The H1-Bs are 3rd world

frauds propped up by slavers in the human trafficking crime business? Who'da thunk.

[lukasahero]

11. You do have a little clue re: the size and population of India, yes?

Your ignorance is showing.

[katanalori]

6. More "witch" beatings and worse -

This from Africa - even little children (suspected of being witches)are beaten and burned with acid. In this case, it is being done by the so-called "Christians." Horrifying. BTW, Pastor Muthee (the one who prayed the witches out of Palin) went to Africa to drive out witches.

http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2009/10/more-about-african-child-abuse-carried.html

[katanalori]

7. as referenced above, this is main reason Palin is DANGEROUS

Christianity, African witch hunting, and Sarah Palin.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/18/african-children-denounce_n_324943.html

[theHandpuppet]

8. OMFG -- these reports are horrifying

Thank you for providing the links, as these reports need to be shared far and wide.

Here are just a few short paragraphs from an article you linked above:

EKET, Nigeria — The nine-year-old boy lay on a bloodstained hospital sheet crawling with ants, staring blindly at the wall.

His family pastor had accused him of being a witch, and his father then tried to force acid down his throat as an exorcism. It spilled as he struggled, burning away his face and eyes. The emaciated boy barely had strength left to whisper the name of the church that had denounced him – Mount Zion Lighthouse.

A month later, he died.

Nwanaokwo Edet was one of an increasing number of children in Africa accused of witchcraft by pastors and then tortured or killed, often by family members. Pastors were involved in half of 200 cases of "witch children" reviewed by the AP, and 13 churches were named in the case files...

[juno jones]

9. Here's another link in case you haven't seen this.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/7/165650/170

For further bedtime reading, check out the series of diaries by both troutfishing (an investigative reporter who mainly covers dominionist christian groups) and dogemeror ( who wrote the above linked article and is a survivor of a fundie dominionist cult). They both link to a lot of scary primary resources in the form of videos and websites generated by the dominionists themselves.

Good ol' Rick Warren is also associated with the fundie christian exploitation of africa and the groups that are torturing children for jesus.

On edit: PS, a large number of the women killed in the european witchhunts were older women with property coveted by others. this was pretty much true of our own brush with witch-killing at Salem.