Religious Extremists – From Ohio to Guyana

Religious extremists – From Ohio to Guyana

Posted on May 2, 2010 by Wendy Phillips

Sangeeta Persaud

It seems as though no religion is exempt from the fringe in its own membership who are referred to as fanatics.  We tend to feel at ease when we hear of extremists in “other” religions.  However, there are some who say that extremists are embedded in all religions.

Take the case of Fathima Rifqa Bary, the Ohio girl who ran away to Orlando because she said her family threatened to kill her for converting to Christianity and rejecting her family’s Muslim faith. “They have to kill me, because I’m a Christian, it’s an honor. If they love me more than God then they have to kill me,” she said.  So Rifqa hitched-hiked then got on a bus to Orlando where she was welcomed into the home of the family of Pastor Blake Lorenz of the Global Revolution Church, who Rifqa befriended on Facebook.

Lorenz called the state to investigate.  Rifqa was placed in foster care with the Department of Children and Families (DCF).  On August 21, 2009 a Florida judge ordered Fathima Rifqa Bary to stay in Florida as the Florida Department of Law Enforcement launched an investigation into her family and the Muslim community in Ohio where she lives.

When Rafqa’s father, Mohamed Bary, traveled to Florida to try to bring his daughter home, he denied the allegations. “Did you threaten to kill your daughter because she converted to Christianity?” he was asked.  “No, no,” responded Mohamed Bary.

However, Rifqa Bary insists that’s not the case. “This is not just threats this is reality. This is truth,” she said.  “If I had stayed in Ohio, I wouldn’t be alive,” she said. “In 150 generations . . . no one has known Jesus. I am the first — imagine the honor in killing me.”  Rifqa said that she had to hide her Bible for years and she repeatedly snuck out to attend Christian prayer meetings. She referred to previous victims of so-called honor killings, in which young Muslim women were murdered for bringing dishonor to their families.  “I want to worship Jesus freely,” said Rifqa.  “That’s what I want. I don’t want to die.”

The case has put Muslim groups on the defensive. Islam condones no such killings, said Babak Darvish, executive director of the Columbus chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.  Darvish accused some conservative Christians and politicians of using the story to stoke anti-Muslim sentiment. “They’re trying to use this case to further this extremist political, religious agenda,” he said.

Rifqa returned to Ohio, but lives in a foster care home.  She is currently engaged in a battle to stay in the United States. Her parents are seeking deportation back to Sri Lanka for the entire family (including Rifqa).  However, Rifqua is trying to stay in the US.  She says that she does not want to be returned to her native Sri Lanka because she fears being harmed or killed by Muslim extremists.

Then there is the case of Sangeeta Persaud, nicknamed “Sheena” age 14, who died at a hospital in Guyana, on March 28, 2010.  The girl died after neighbors and a local pastor tried to treat her convulsions with an exorcism at a church.  It is reported that when Sangeeta began to convulse, her mother and grandmother ruled out medical treatment and took her to a nearby Christian church to exorcise demon spirits they were convinced had possessed her.

Ewart Cummings, pastor of Christ Ambassadors Church, said he decided to take the girl to his small, concrete church, where he and several elders spent five hours praying for her as they pressed on her stomach and head.  They forced anointing oil and a mixture of lime juice and salt down her throat.  Then they gave her saline injections.

The girl’s grandmother, Chaitranie Ramotar, said that the girl was subjected to a physical ritual, which included prodding, squeezing and palming. Ramotar said that another Pastor at the church named Gulab “took his hand and put it by my granddaughter private part and the Amerindian woman put her hand on his hand and they both start applying pressure down there as though they were trying to get the demon out from her womb while calling out for Hindu spirits, Hanuman and Kali.”

The pastor’s efforts proved futile, and Sangeeta’s condition worsened.  At about 5 p.m., Cummings drove the girl to the hospital because she had calmed down.  She died at 10 p.m.

The first autopsy conducted on Sangeeta’s body was inconclusive and the body was released and buried the next day.  However, when they were unable to quell the controversy surrounding Sangeeta’s demise, Guyana’s officials announced the decision to have the body exhumed and have a second autopsy done by an “independent pathologist.”

Sangeeta, who had hailed from a predominantly sleepy Hindu farming community, had converted from Hinduism to Christianity several years ago.  Sangeeta’s death inflamed a bitter but old feud between Hindus and Christians in Guyana.  Some Christians believe that Sangeeta’s condition was caused by something she had to eat at a Hindu ceremony the day before, and that the spirits which possessed her entered her while she was a Hindu.  Hindu organizations, however, fought back calling for a thorough investigation and another autopsy.

The fact remains, however, that those who subjected Sangeeta to this ritual are Christians.  “I did nothing wrong,” Pastor, Ewart Cummings said.  “I just responded as pastor of the church. Ungodly people would not understand certain things like driving out spirits.”

When Juan Edghill, Chairman of Guyana’s Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC), was asked whether persons should have some sort of knowledge or qualifications to perform exorcisms, Edghill responded that “the Bible teaches these signs shall follow them that believe in my name you shall cast out devils. Casting out of evil spirits in Christianity is not just for pastors. It’s for every person who believes,” he asserted.

“What we are hearing is a young child on a Sunday morning is having certain manifestations, barking like a dog, going like a pig, crying out and screaming and yelling,” Edghill said adding that the family has received personal benefit from prayer and all they did was seek help for the child who unfortunately died at the hospital while receiving medical attention.

Religious extremists come in all colors, races and religions.