Belgium Court Charges 6 People in Deadly Exorcism of Muslim Woman

Welcome back to the Dark Ages (and contrary to what the victim's ignorant brother claims, exorcisms certainly are a part of mainstream Islamic beliefs).

From Al Arabiya:

A court in Brussels opened on Monday the trial of six people charged in connection with the 2004 murder of a young Muslim woman in a deadly act of exorcism, a practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person believed to be possessed.

The woman was reportedly deceived into believing that she could not have children because she was possessed and that she had to undergo a practice of exorcism.

But the woman apparently could not stand the severe punishment the exorcism allegedly entails to scourge the demon out of the body, and she lost her life.

The detainees in the case include two self-appointed exorcists, the victim’s husband and three female members of a radical Muslim group, will be standing trial for three weeks and facing charges of “torture leading to death.” If they are convicted, they face up to 30 years in prison.

Hours after Latifa Hachmi, 23, died in the evening of Aug. 5, 2004, her husband, Mourad Mazouj, made an emergency call reporting that his wife was feeling ill and stuck in the bathroom.

But the hypothesis of a natural death was quickly dismissed, as her body was found covered with bruises and her lungs filled with water.

Her husband later admitted to investigators that his wife was subjected month-long sessions of exorcism to evict from her body the demons that “prevented her from becoming pregnant.”

 The practice was conducted in the couple’s apartment in Brussels by Abdelkrim Aznagui, a Moroccan self-proclaimed “Sheik” and his “disciple,” Xavier Meert, a Belgian native who converted to Islam. They were reportedly assisted by the woman’s husband and three Muslim “sisters” of the victim.

During this period, the young woman had swallowed dozens of liters of “holy” water, according to Belgian media reports. She was fed two spoons of yogurt every day and always had earphones playing verses from the Quran.

In order to evict the demons, the exorcists reportedly put their fingers down the woman’s throat, forced her into bathing in hot water and beat her with a stick.

 “The husband and Latifa herself asked Xavier Meert for the exorcism sessions,” the husband’s lawyer, Peter Chomé said. “He may have misjudged her health condition, but it has nothing to do with torture,” he added.

Latifa’s family asked the court to consider the practice that led to the death of their daughter as an act of torture.

“They made Latifa believe that she could not have children because the devil was inside her. That’s why they started the exorcism rituals, but exorcism is not recognized in the Islamic faith,” the victim’s brother said.

First Belgium, then France, and now Australia: Third act of Muslim on Muslim terror in just over a week

An update to this post is available here: Now it's five Muslim on Muslim attacks in nine days

If we include Islamic and Muslim majority nations, Muslim on Muslim terror attacks and violence happen on an almost daily basis. But the last 8 days are notable for acts of violence perpetrated by Muslims against fellow Muslims, because this trend seems to have begun spreading into secular and liberal "Western" nations.

On March 12, 2012, sectarian violence hit Belgium when a Shi'ite imam died in a mosque arson attack by a Sunni Muslim. He entered the mosque in Anderlecht, a suburb of Brussels, setting it alight and shouting Sunni slogans on his way out — cries related to the conflict in Syria.

On March 16, 2012, a bat-wielding Muslim worshiper entered a mosque in northern France and repeatedly beat two elderly men with it, killing one and badly injuring the other.

And now it has been reported that the Alevi Community Council of Australia centre in North Coburg, Melbourne, has been Petrol-bombed and notes were pinned to the fence threatening Alevis unless they "testified" that Allah was the only god to be worshipped. Alevi is a branch of the Sufi order of Shi'ite Islam.

This is not to say that Western Muslim on Muslim violence and terrorism has never happened before. It most certainly has, or has been attempted. For example:

On August 14, 2011, in broad daylight and heavy traffic, a pro-Israel Muslim poet was viciously attacked on the streets of St. Louis, Missouri, USA. Muslims used a knife to carve a Star of David on his back while laughing and reciting his pro-Jewish poem.

On January 2011, in what would have also been another notable incident, what was first believed to be an attempted anti-Muslim terrorist attack against a Shi'ite Dearborn mosque, turned out to be motivated by inter-Islamic sectarian differences. Roger Stockham, the so-called "Christian terrorist", turned out to be a convert to Sunni Islam. Stockham is now facing a charge of possessing explosives with unlawful intent.

And, of course, we have Muslim Honor violence that is fast becoming a norm among non-Muslim nations that have a Muslim minority.

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

A petrol-bomb attack on a community centre has prompted fears among Melbourne’s Alevi population they could be targeted with more violence on religious grounds.

Glass bottles containing petrol and set alight were thrown at the front and rear doors of the Alevi Community Council of Australia centre in North Coburg overnight.

No one was inside the centre at the time of the incident, but a centre spokeswoman said the building’s rear door was badly burnt.

Surmeli Aydogan, the council’s community liaison officer, said the centre’s users were also concerned to find notes pinned to the fence threatening Alevis on religious grounds unless they "testified" that Allah was the only god to be worshipped.

Ms Aydogan said the centre had previously received threatening phone calls, but had dismissed them as pranks. However, she said the attack with petrol bombs had left the council's members shaken.

Alevi is a branch of the Sufi order of Shia Islam.

"We're worried this might happen again, and what if this happens when people are here? That's our main concern," she said.

"We're concerned about that as well because we have a youth group here, we have young children here, we have elderly groups. There are people at the centre every single day. It’s a cultural centre, so we do cultural things like reading poetry and dance and so forth."

Ms Aydogan said the attack had stirred painful memories for some of the city’s Alevi population, many of whom moved to Australia after years of oppression in Turkey.

"We’re an oppressed group and we’ve been denied our rights in Turkey, but we live in Australia," she said.

"We’re Australian Alevis now and this sort of thing happening here brings back memories, particularly for our elderly, of what they went through."

Fawkner police confirmed detectives were investigating the incident.