Child abuse linked to faith or belief
Follows a selection of ritualistic crimes and abuse over a fairly long period from 2000 by various investigators, that I have found by searching the web. They are in the words of the investigators. I have not attempted to put dates to these crimes. Many of these horrific crimes are perpetrated against children sometimes resulting in the death of that child.
Black magic healer pierced girl, 3, with 11 needles to cure her of ‘evil spirit’
Sinister rise of Islamic exorcisms in Britain: By DR RICHARD HOSKINS, Criminologist and expert in ritual crime
CHANTING an incantation, the man drives a long silver needle deep into the stomach of a three-year-old girl named Laila. Another is thrust deep under the hip bone and several are rammed into her pelvis. Each time, the same chant is muttered over the body of the tiny, terrified child.
Laila is being exorcised of evil spirits, known as jinns in Islam, by one of the faith’s thousands of practitioners of black magic working in the UK.
By the end of the sinister process the little girl has 11 of the needles buried in her flesh one of which later moves through her body and into her lung.
Fighting desperately for every breath, she is barely alive by the time she is brought to Newham Hospital in East London in April 2008, where sickened doctors managed to undo the damage done in the name of delusion.
And similar horrors are unfolding in the UK every day.
Bogus Islamic faith healers and their black magic are huge business here — estimated to be worth tens of millions of pounds a year.
They have sprung up in almost every British town and city.
On Monday this week, one healer, Zakariyya Islam, 46, was stabbed to death in a frenzied knife attack in his clinic.
The father of three practised exorcism and other “healing” practises against jinns at the Ruqya Therapy Centre in Whitechapel, East London.
“Ruqya” is the word for the incantations used against the spirits. The centre’s website boasts of treating witchcraft, sorcery and the evil eye as well as possession by jinns.
A man has since been arrested for the killing, which has brought to light just how prevalent these bogus Muslim faith healers have become here. They advertise in local papers and pop cards through letterboxes, promising to banish the jinns, which are blamed for every kind of illness or problem.
One 14-year-old London girl whose case I investigated had a massive number of cuts to her body. A barbaric “healer” had sliced her open in 2012 to “let out the jinns”.
Many people still do not associate Islam with faith healers, or black magic. But the power of jinns are as much a part of some Muslims’ beliefs as juju in Nigeria or muti in South Africa, and the bogus healers are there in droves to cash in.
Last year I helped police bust one of these Islamic faith healers, who called himself aliases including Sheikh Saleem and Tunkara.
Police identified him as Mohammed Ashrafi, 50, from Leicester. Ashrafi wore Islamic robes and claimed to use the Koran in “magic” ways, despite this being officially outlawed in Islam.
He was convicted in February this year of fleecing £650,000 from gullible clients.
During our probe we found suggestions that he had caused clients to drink substances laced with psychotics in order to make them more pliable.
Like many of the “healers”, he also did crude magician-style tricks to convince victims of his powers.
For example, he would boil water in a saucepan in front of clients, covering it with a lid to which, unbeknownst to them, he had used wax to fix nails to the underside.
The wax would melt, dropping the nails into the water, which to the naive onlookers appeared to have come from nowhere.
From one desperate client alone he fleeced £87,000. Another handed over £150,000. Like other con artists, Ashrafi began asking for small amounts before demanding more and more.
Vulnerable believers craving the healing he promised went through their life’s savings. He was found guilty of 14 counts of fraud and was sentenced to nine years in jail.
In another heartbreaking case, a healer took £57,000 from a couple because they believed he could cure their ten-year-old son of Down’s syndrome. They were not even Muslim, but this white, middle-class couple were frantic.
The lad’s mum said later that she “desperately wished to make his life easier”.
At their first meeting the healer asked them to bring £27,000 and a photo of the boy and he would help.
He explained that he knew a sacred tree where he would bury the money and the photo. Then he would chant incantations and the spirits would cure the boy.
Of course it did not work — but the healer simply asked for another £15,000, saying that this time he would bury the money with Koranic texts.
Finally another £15,000 was demanded for more incantations at the tree.
The healer swore the couple to secrecy, telling them that if they told anyone what he was doing the jinns would get them.
And these scammers do not just prey on people with health issues. Any problems, from love to money to business, can be “fixed”. Some even brag of being able to give you the winning EuroMillions numbers, for a price.
Most sessions involve praying, chanting and candles. Sometimes they claim they can see the jinns working inside the client.
I have even seen healers write Koranic verses in black ink then make the client swallow them.
Police can and have acted in some cases when complaints are made — but some mosques are believed to have pressured others not to complain or to withdraw allegations.
Is there any solution? Some people will say the only way is to shut them down. Bogus faith healers should have no place in today’s Britain.
Others will say Islam needs to get its house in order.
All I know is that when you see a child’s body full of black magic needles, you know things must change.
Bradford imam Alyas Karmani last night said faith healing is an integral part of Islam as well as other major religions.
He added: “It can provide much solace and support to people going through major turmoil. However these faith healers are NOT qualified mental health specialists and can sometimes exacerbate conditions.”
Devil’s chosen victims
Yusif Ali Abdi claimed a jinn spirit inside him made him batter his baby son to death in April 2001.
He told a Dublin court that the evil spirit urged him on, saying: “Hit him, hit him.”
Asked why he went along with the suggestion, Abdi replied: “I was like in somebody else’s body and I was just following the order.”
The devout Muslim said he heard the voice when he got up to pray at 4am.
He then took 20-month-old Nathan from the bed where he slept beside his mum and locked himself in the kitchen.
After killing the child he heard wife Amanda Bailey desperately hammering on the door but said he didn’t open it because he was deep in prayer.
Abdi said he had suffered from paranoia and depression since arriving in Clane, Co Kildare, Ireland, from Somalia in June 1996 where he had been persecuted. He was sentenced to life in jail.
Four members of a Muslim family were jailed for life in 2012 for murdering a young pregnant woman they believed was possessed by “evil spirits”.
The group pinned down Naila Mumtaz, 21, from Birmingham, before suffocating and beating her in a botched exorcism.
Her husband Mohammed Mumtaz, 28, was convicted of murder with his parents Salma Aslam and Zia Ul-Haq and brother-in-law Hammad Hassan.
The trial heard evidence that Nalia was killed during attempts to render her unconscious as family members attempted to drive out a harmful jinn.
When footie player Emmanuel Adebayor, did not manage to put goals away for Tottenham Hotspur last year, he claimed his mother had used black magic known as juju on him to prevent him from scoring.
But his brother Kola later blasted him, claiming that the then-Spurs striker had been “brainwashed” by Islamic spiritual healers.
He said: “They have convinced him that his sister and mother put juju curses on him. My mother is very sad. Every day she is crying. “I just talked to her on the phone and she was crying again.”
He added: “My family is Christian but it is not unusual to visit Muslim spiritual healers.
One of the most publicised cases was that of Victoria Climbié:
There were 12 chances to save the life of this eight year old girl. Instead, she died of 128 injuries. How could a child in Britain die like this?
On 25 February 2000, months of abuse and neglect finally overcome Victoria Climbié and she’s declared dead. The torture she’s suffered includes starvation, cigarette burns, repeated beatings with bike chains and belt buckles. And hammer blows to her toes.
But the London doctors who declare this little African girl dead believe her name is Anna.
Victoria Climbié is born on 2 November 1991 in a small African village called Abobo which is near Abidjan, the former capital of the Ivory Coast. Victoria smiles, sings and dances as naturally as other children walk and talk. (In fact, she speaks both her local language and French, as her country is an ex French colony.) Victoria is definitely the ‘entertainer’ of the family. And her parents Francis Climbié and Berthe Amoissi want the very best for her. But their country is often torn apart by civil war, has endemic poverty, and illiteracy is extremely high amongst women.
So when, shortly before Victoria’s seventh birthday, her 42 year old great aunt, Marie-Therese Kouao offers to take their daughter back with her to France, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime.
Unknown to them, Marie-Therese Kouao only wants Victoria to help her access better state benefits back in France as she believes having a child will prioritise her on things like housing lists. To this end, Marie-Therese has already prepared a false passport in the name of her fictional daughter Anna. But the family of her intended target refused to let their Anna go. And it’s easier for the manipulative Marie-Therese to recruit another child of a different name, than change the passport. So she targets Victoria. To get her through border controls, she gives Victoria hair extensions. She now resembles the photo of Anna, the actual girl in the false passport.
Within 18 months, Marie-Therese, along with her new bus driving boyfriend, will be responsible for killing ‘Anna’.
Victoria Climbie Inquiry February 2000
The inquiry focused on the tragic death of Victoria Climbié by her then aunt Ms Marie-Therese Kouao and her then partner Mr Carl Manning. Both were found guilty of her murder.
The Inquiry, chaired by Lord Laming, took evidence from all those involved in the case, from social services, health, housing and the police and a series of seminars with invited contributors were also held.
A preacher told the inquiry into the death of eight-year-old Victoria Climbié that he thought she was possessed by evil spirits when he saw her wounds.
Pastor Pascal Orome said he did not suspect Victoria - killed in one of Britain's worst child abuse cases - was being abused despite seeing her torture injuries.
She was taken to his church in Borough, south-east London, by her great aunt Marie Therese Kouao, who was one of her killers.
Mr Pascal told the inquiry he knew Victoria was coping with hardship when he saw the girl, but did not advise Kouao to take her to the doctor because he was "too busy" with other parishioners.
After one service at the Mission Ensemble Pour Christ Church, he went over to Victoria and said a prayer, telling her: "You are delivered from witchcraft or wicked spirits."
Mr Orome, who has been preaching for two years told the hearing that Victoria "was the first time I see such a problem of evil spirits in a child of seven or eight".
Many will blame the Haringey social worker, Lisa Arthurworrey, for not doing more to prevent the abuse. But in reality, she will be just a scapegoat for a system that utterly fails to protect an innocent child.
