Sufiah: Black Magic Woman?
Technorati tags: Sufiah Yusof, Black Magic, Rescue Squad, Superstition, Malays Superstition
Related post: Saving Sufiah
This would have been a perfect post topic for the HENN (Hell-on-Earth News Network) series, except for one annoying fact - that it's true. It ranks as the WTF story of the week, even though it's only Monday.
The Malay Community Association of United Kingdom (Melayu UK) are convinced that Sufiah Yusof is under a magic spell. The following is an excerpt from an entry on their website (English translation in this color, and comes from the same website, bad grammar and all. Emphasis by myAsylum):
Berdasarkan perbincangan dengan pengamal perubatan Islam dan beberapa petunjuk Ilahi, kami yakin Sufiah sekarang dibawah pengaruh sihir. Oleh itu satu delegasi dari Malaysia yang di ketuai oleh Ustaz Trimizi Zainal akan bertolak dari Malaysia pada 19hb April ini khusus untuk merawat Sufiah menggunakan kaedah perubatan Islam. Ustaz Trimizi Insya'Allah akan berada di UK selama 1 bulan dan Insya'Allah beliau akan merawat Sufiah sepanjang tempuh tersebut.
Based on discussion with Islamic medical practitioners and several divine guidance, we are convinced that Sufiah is under the influence of black magic. For that reason, a delegation from Malaysia headed by Ustaz Trimizi Zainal will depart Malaysia on 19th April to treat Sufiah using Islamic Medical practice. Ustaz Trimizi Insha'Allah will be in UK for 1 month and Insha'Allah he will treat Sufiah for the whole of the duration.
(source: Melayu UK website)
Malays and their superstitions... even if it's "Islamic"-flavored superstition, it's still superstition. When all else fails, blame it on black magic. Or anything else intangible... In fact, teen and young-age rebelliousness is very often blamed on black magic. Nevermind the stresses that the young have to endure, nevermind the differences of opinions they may have with their elders, nevermind that most parents don't have an inkling about child and adolescent psychology... it's all the fault of black magic. And this belief is very, very prevalent among the Malays.
The bulletin above was originally posted on April 1st, 2008... yeah, yeah... Walski knows what the date means... but it's definitely not an April Fools joke. Why? Because April Fools pranks are very rarely followed up with an update, a few days later.
(black magic holiday for 4, and more, in the full post)
An update, dated April 3rd, has this to say (it was posted in English, emphasis by myAsylum):
We are trying to fly in a team of 4 persons from Malaysia. Please donate generously. This effort will also enable us to build a more permanent infrastructure for the benefit of the Malay and Muslim community in the UK.
(source: Melayu UK website)
Is this part of the "Save Sufiah Program" Walski mentioned in his earlier post? And how on Earth is Black Magic treatment going to benefit the Malay and Muslim community in the UK - apart from keeping it gullible?
And Walski would also be very interested to see how this team of 4, from Malaysia - it's a nice time to be in the UK, incidentally - is going to get around the very real, no-magic-of-any-color-involved, legal obstacle of forcing treatment on someone who's not given her consent. Unless these morons plan to abduct Sufiah, Rambo-style, to some undisclosed location to carry out their "exorcism" treatment.
Abducting somebody on religious grounds may be (almost) acceptable in Malaysia, but certainly not in the UK.
Seriously, if anyone reading this knows Sufiah personally, please alert her - Walski doubts if any of these efforts are being done with her knowledge or consent. Sorry to rain on you Melayu UK folks' parade, but abduction is serious business... if that's indeed what you people are willing to resort to.
Apparently, this had been reported in the Malay Mail last Friday (April 4th) - Walski has created a PDF of the report, which you can download here. And yes, the Malay Mail report also talks about this "rescue mission" put together by Melayu UK.
For their own sake, Walski hopes that the so-called "rescue team" be very, very careful not to force their good intentions onto Sufiah... just treat it as another holiday in the UK, courtesy of some very concerned, if gullible, Melayu brethren...
