THE Muslim parents of a 17-year-old Somali girl who converted to Christianity severely beat her for leaving Islam and have regularly shackled her to a tree at their home for more than a month.
According to this report, the parents of Nurta Mohamed Farah of Bardher, Gedo Region in southern Somalia, also took her to a doctor who prescribed medication for a “mental illness”.
Alarmed by her determination to keep her faith, her father, Hassan Kafi Ilmi, and mother, Hawo Godane Haf, decided she had gone crazy and forced her to take the medication, but it had no effect in swaying her from her faith.
A Christian leader, who insisted on anonymity, said:
When the woman’s family found out that she converted to Christianity, she was beaten badly but insisted on her new-found religion.
Traditionally, he added, many Somalis believe the Koran cures the sick, especially the mentally ill, so the Islamic scripture is continually recited to her twice a week.
The girl is very sick and undergoing intense suffering … she is shackled to a tree by day and is put in a small, dark room at night. There is little the community can do about her condition, which is very bad, but I have advised our community leader to keep monitoring her condition but not to meddle for their own safety. We need prayers and human advocacy for such inhuman acts, and for freedom of religion for the Somali people.
And now to a genuine case of madness … with strong religious overtones.
'Religious fanatic' Julia Lovemore
The BBC reports today that “religious fanatic” Julia Lovemore, who lives near Cambridge, has been detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act following the death last year of her daughter, aged six weeks. She had earlier admitted the manslaughter of baby Faith on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
The judge at Cambridge Crown Court said the 41-year-old was:
Profoundly mentally disordered and suffering from religious delusions at the time.
The woman’s husband, David Lovemore, 39, not implicated in the child’s death, was also described in court having “extreme religious views”.
Hat tip: Alan and Angela K
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
June 16th, 2010 at 11:02 pm
All nutters together.
June 16th, 2010 at 11:06 pm
“Somalis believe the Koran cures the “sick”
Ha ha what a fucking joke. The Koran encourages the sick minded to behead infidels, mutiate their childrens genitles and blow up the Kuffar
.
June 16th, 2010 at 11:19 pm
For once, I agree with the muslims. Converting to christianity is a sign of mental illness.
June 17th, 2010 at 9:08 am
At least the judge is moving in the right direction refering to “religious delusions.” Religion is usually exempted from “delusions” although I don’t know of much that is more deluded than those who think that they are eating flesh when it is a wafer and drinking real blood when it is wine. And yet they perform these delusions in public and are venerated when they do so.
June 17th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
There are further details of the second outrage today:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....t-her.html
June 17th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
There are varying degrees of religious mental illness: some of the less afflicted have the intelligence to “cure” themselves, while others living in their fantasy world of religion, sink deeper into depravity.
It takes faith to have no faith.
June 17th, 2010 at 8:08 pm
When I heard the Julia Lovemore story (indeed whenever I hear a story about adults committing violence against children) on the radio my first thought was that there would probably be religion involved. I used to chide myself for being prejudiced whenever I thought like this but having now established a one hundred percent track record of being dead right about dozens of these kinds of stories, I don’t.
I recall that a couple of years ago some religious commentator, it may have been on the infamous ‘Though for the Day’, suggested that atheists were more likely to abuse children. The outrage at this complete reversal of the truth well and truly put this guy right, though I doubt very much that he learned anything from the experience.