On the 13th and 14th of May 2015, over 180 middle and elementary girl students in Saudi Arabia were reported to have refused to attend classes at the Al- Shalail village girls school. The school located in Southern Madinah province in Western Arabia, had already had nine girl students who had allegedly fainted, and were said to have experienced 'spasms' at the beginning of the school term following the holidays ..... I used to experience something similar myself!
These nine girls had somehow convinced their parents that it was malevolent Djinn (Jinn, aka Genies in western terms), who were responsible for this, and the rest of the schools pupils parents quickly accepted this, and stopped their children attending.
Now as most people know, these cases of mass spontaneous fainting's, and other breathing illnesses amongst school children, are not unheard of, especially in teenage girls schools, where depending upon which culture it is, its described as a biological reaction to some unknown chemical agent, mass hysteria, black magic, or apparently attributed, as in this case to 'Demons'.
The education authorities sent inspectors to investigate ... however this particular story highlights the fact that in Muslim society, particularly amongst Arabs, Djinn (and black magic) are accepted as both real, and in the case of Djinn, a part of the religion.
Djinn in the Islamic world, are not akin to 'angels' in the Christian tradition, but are not 'demons' either. They are another of 'Allahs' creations, who live on another plane, but who can intervene for either good or bad with humanity.
So there are Islamic preachers who claim to be able to exorcise Djinn from humans (usually women, and often with violence), and they are operating in the West as well as the Islamic world. Of course this isn't too different from the Christians preachers who perform exorcisms against demons, and possibly they equally occasionally perform some good for the victim, especially those with mild mental health issues for whom a placebo type affect (or even a good bout of psychiatric self counselling), would have worked.
But I would like to bet that this type of intervention performs more damage to both the victim and the families than it ever does good. The sooner we stop believing in non rational explanations, and even more non rational cures, the better the world will be.
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| Mass Hysteria Cases Are Not Uncommon (Like This Case In Bangladesh) But Rarely Blamed On Djinn |
These nine girls had somehow convinced their parents that it was malevolent Djinn (Jinn, aka Genies in western terms), who were responsible for this, and the rest of the schools pupils parents quickly accepted this, and stopped their children attending.
Now as most people know, these cases of mass spontaneous fainting's, and other breathing illnesses amongst school children, are not unheard of, especially in teenage girls schools, where depending upon which culture it is, its described as a biological reaction to some unknown chemical agent, mass hysteria, black magic, or apparently attributed, as in this case to 'Demons'.
The education authorities sent inspectors to investigate ... however this particular story highlights the fact that in Muslim society, particularly amongst Arabs, Djinn (and black magic) are accepted as both real, and in the case of Djinn, a part of the religion.
 |
| Imam Ali And The Jinn ... Genies An Old Pre-Islamic Tradition. |
Djinn in the Islamic world, are not akin to 'angels' in the Christian tradition, but are not 'demons' either. They are another of 'Allahs' creations, who live on another plane, but who can intervene for either good or bad with humanity.
So there are Islamic preachers who claim to be able to exorcise Djinn from humans (usually women, and often with violence), and they are operating in the West as well as the Islamic world. Of course this isn't too different from the Christians preachers who perform exorcisms against demons, and possibly they equally occasionally perform some good for the victim, especially those with mild mental health issues for whom a placebo type affect (or even a good bout of psychiatric self counselling), would have worked.
But I would like to bet that this type of intervention performs more damage to both the victim and the families than it ever does good. The sooner we stop believing in non rational explanations, and even more non rational cures, the better the world will be.
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