Hashtags have done better than anything so far

I do not understand why we need to tell these parents that "hashtags will not bring back your girls". They tried everything they could and resorted to hashtags as a last resort to shame Nigeria into getting their daughters back. So far, this hashtag by a Nigerian lawyer has done more than anything else they tried. You are right, these fathers and this lawyer are not warriors, but they needed to shame the warriors into doing something.

Marital Rape Still Legal in Nigeria

Just researching a little extra context on the Nigerian girls abduction. While child marriage and unconsensual marriage have been illegal in Nigeria for years, it still happens for cultural reasons.[1] Marital rape however is still legal in Nigeria. Specifically in the Northern states, it is still legal to use pain and threats of death to obtain sex from your wife. Still the girls were ages 12-15 and it is always considered rape in the Northern States to have sex with a girl who is not your wife or is under the age of 14 unless she is your wife. Let us pray for their quick return. [2]

I have written quite a bit about marital rape and you can read more by clicking here.

Bishop David Oyedepo slaps a witch for Jesus

Then a year later, he brags about it.

Pentecostal abuse of kindoki children is on the rise in the UK

Nigerian Pentecostal Church

When 15-year-old Kristy Bamu left his parents in Paris on 16 December 2010, he was looking forward to spending the Christmas holidays with his siblings, visiting their sister and her boyfriend in London.

On Christmas Day he was found by paramedics in the bathroom of an east London high-rise flat. His body had been mutilated, teeth were missing and he was covered in deep cuts and bruising. In the last four days of his life he had suffered acts of unspeakable savagery, doled out by a man he called "uncle" and one of his own sisters.

Why? Because Eric Bikubi, a powerfully built football coach, and Magalie Bamu were convinced the boy was a witch, possessed by spirits who wanted to bring evil into their home. On Thursday they were convicted of murder. They had earlier admitted actual bodily harm against Kristy's sister Kelly and a younger sister, who cannot be named.

The judge, Mr Justice Paget, exempted the jury from jury service for the rest of their lives because of the "strain" of the trial, adding it was a case "every one of us will remember". The story of Kristy's last days is difficult to hear, and harder to comprehend. He was starved and deprived of water and sleep, punched and kicked repeatedly, floor tiles were smashed over his head, his teeth were hit out with a hammer and a pair of pliers were used to twist his ear. Throughout the ordeal, his siblings – two of whom were themselves accused of being witches by the couple and abused – were forced to watch or take part in the torture.

But despite the extraordinary horror of this case, African groups have warned that belief in witchcraft is increasingly common in some communities and that other children in the UK are "suffering in silence" after being branded as witches.

"We were concerned about this before this trial of Kristy Bamu," said Debbie Ariyo, executive director of Africans Unite Against Child Abuse(Afruca), who added that a boom in pentecostal churches was leading to more children being accused of witchcraft. "This is not a problem with all pastors or all churches, but the branding of children as witches is not abating. It is a growing problem. There are so many children suffering in silence."

In response to the case the Victoria Climbie Foundation announced on Thursday that in April it would be launching a cross-border initiative with Kelly Bamu and some of the teenager's friends who would work in schools and in communities to highlight the dangers of ritualised child abuse and witch branding. "A lot of awareness raising has been done, but this is also a problem in other EU countries such as Belgium," said director Mor Dioum.

The 83 incidents uncovered in the past decade only scratch the surface of a hidden crime, according to Detective Superintendent Terry Sharpe, head of the child abuse investigation command at Scotland Yard.

An average of eight children a year in Greater London are victims of abuse based on witchcraft-style exorcisms, but this only reflects cases resulting in police investigations.

Sharpe detailed the horrific abuse, including being beaten or forced to drink unknown liquids, starved or deprived of sleep, blindfolded and having their hair shaved off.

Kristy Bamu was subjected to many methods of torture. It began with a simple accident when Kristy, waking in an unfamiliar bed, wet himself. Bikubi, finding the underwear, accused the boy of being possessed bykindoki – the word for witchcraft in the Congolese Lingala language. This is a recognisable trigger in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where both Bikubi and Bamu were born, according to Dr Richard Hoskins, an expert in African religions.

"The trigger that needs to occur for people to think someone is possessed by kindoki can be anything out of the ordinary. Bed-wetting is a classic example of this," he told the Old Bailey trial.

For the next four days, Kristy and two of his sisters – Kelly, 21, and an 11-year-old – were accused repeatedly of being witches. They were forced to fast and stay up all night chanting prayers. In horrific evidence, which reduced members of the jury to tears, the court heard that Bikubi soon fixated on Kristy. Over several days, he beat him around the body with a metal bar used for weights, shoving the end of it into his mouth and dislodging a tooth. The football coach headbutted and hit the teenager, smashing bottles and then heavy floor tiles – bought to redecorate the flat – over his head. When paramedics arrived at the flat on Christmas Day and found the child drowned by the side of a bath, they found his blood all over the flat and an "armoury" of weapons that had been used to torture him.

Witchcraft had preoccupied Bikubi from an early age. Speaking to a forensic psychiatrist, Dr Tim Rogers, in Pentonville prison, he explained as a child in the DRC he saw rats and other "abnormal visions" and was isolated as a result. Bikubi – who moved to London when he was seven – believed he was "the chosen one", with a special ability to sense other people's spirits.

Thomas Bikebi, executive director of the Congolese Family Centre, said that for some believers once the presence of evil spirits had been "confirmed" – often, but not always by a pastor – the "punishment" was seen to be imposed on the spirit and not on the child. "When you force the child to fast, people believe you are starving the spirit, not the child. When you beat, you are beating the spirit," he said.

The widespread belief in kindoki could even lead those who believed in the evil power of spirits to support the actions of Bikubi and Bamu, he said. "There are people within the community who will say that this pair did the right thing, they killed a witch," Bikebi said.

Common problems experienced by children – such as autism, epilepsy, dyslexia or even simple naughtiness – could trigger accusations, said Ariyo, with children living away from home or in domestic servitude most likely to be targeted.

"It is heartbreaking. Some of these children have a disability but pastors are saying they are possessed," she said. "This can prevent parents going to see professionals and getting the help they need."

There has been a rapid growth in African churches in the UK. According to UK Church Statistics, 670 pentecostal churches opened between 2005 and 2010, taking the total to 3,900 – that figure is expected to rise to 4,600 by 2015. As a result, Ariyo fears that "witch-branding" is on the increase. Afruca dealt with a dozen cases of ritualised abuse last year, and said the national figure was likely to be far higher.

A social worker with more than 30 years' experience with African communities in London said that many cases were "going under the radar" and blamed "rogue" pastors for the spread of branding and ritualised abuse. "It is spreading like bushfire because it is a source of income," she said. "If you can charge £500 for an oil that is going to 'cure' a child of evil spirits, you are going to make money. Pastors can be very powerful people, and we have to educate the bad ones that there are other ways of making money than playing on people's ignorance."

Police believe Bikubi may have visited Nigerian preachers in north London but his local churches denied knowing him. However, access to the internet and satellite channels meant the influence of pastors based in countries such as Nigeria, Angola and the DRC was increasingly pervasive, Bikebi said.

"You have pastors online who tell people that they just need to send money and touch the table in front of them and the evil spirit will be banished and all their problems will be fixed."

One video on YouTube, featuring the well-known Nigerian preacher David Oyedepo, reveals the power of some church leaders. A teenage girl kneels before the pastor, and after saying she is a "witch for Jesus" he calls her a "foul devil", slapping her violently across the face while the congregation cheers. In a later video, he can be seen boasting: "I slapped a witch here last year."

Many African churches work with agencies to educate preachers about UK laws concerning child protection, according to the Churches' Child Protection Advisory Service. The organisation has trained 4,000 preachers from African churches since 2007, but argues that local boards for safeguarding children must do more to know what churches are operating in their areas.

A lack of any requirement to note religion in child abuse cases was likely to lead to under-reporting, said its chief executive, Simon Bass.

"Like female genital mutilation, there is likely to be under-reporting in this area, so we have to work with statutory agencies and across the church spectrum to ensure more children do not suffer this type of abuse," he said.

Project Violet, the Metropolitan police's faith-related child abuse unit, has a team of three dedicated officers working with communities, schools, religious leaders, and the medical profession to raise awareness, said Sharpe. "We have ongoing community engagement … and are in the process of increasing awareness of Project Violet within the Met police so that frontline officers who attend incidents are aware of these particular issues," he said.

Critics argue the unit has been seriously neglected in recent years, after making an initial impact when it was established in 2005 as a response to the abuse of child B – an eight-year-old Angolan girl who was beaten, cut and had chilli rubbed in her eyes for being a "witch".

"Project Violet is a shadow of its former self," said Ariyo. "The police are not engaging enough with faith groups, and there is a gap that needs to be filled. We shouldn't shed tears after another child has been killed. We need to act now."

Afruca is calling on the government to make branding a child as a witch illegal, and is calling for greater monitoring of churches and preachers. "If we don't push home the idea that calling a child a witch will have grave consequences, then we will continue to have these kind of cases," said Ariyo. "We don't seem to be learning from these cases. People cry crocodile tears and then nothing happens."

On Christmas Day 2010, Kristy's killer spoke to the boy's father, Pierre, accusing the 15-year-old of being a witch and threatening to kill him. Kristy told his father: "Dad, come and get me, or otherwise Eric will kill me". The court heard Pierre Bamu, dismissed the boy's fears because he could not imagine Bikubi causing any harm to the children, who had stayed with Bikubi before. A few hours later, Kristy was dead. [1]

Martian Meteorites

A Mars meteorite stone (shergottite) weighing 452.6 grams.

Of the 24,000 or so meteorites that have been discovered on Earth, only 34 have been identified as originating from the planet Mars. These rare meteorites created a stir throughout the world whenNASA announced in August 1996 that evidence of microfossils may be present in one of these Mars meteorites. [1]

(AP) Updated: 1:05 PM: WASHINGTON - Scientists are confirming a recent and rare invasion from Mars: meteorite chunks from the red planet that fell in Morocco last July.

This is only the fifth time scientists have confirmed chemically Martian meteorites that people witnessed as they fell. The fireball was spotted in the sky six months ago, but the rocks were not discovered on the ground in North Africa until the end of December.

This is an important and unique opportunity for scientists trying to learn about Mars' potential for life. So far, no NASA or Russian spacecraft has returned bits of Mars, so the only Martian samples scientists can examine are those that come here in meteorite showers.

Scientists and collectors of meteorites are ecstatic, and already the rocks are fetching big money because they are among the rarest things on Earth, rarer even than gold. A special committee of meteorite experts, including some NASA scientists, confirmed the test results Tuesday. They certified that 15 pounds (7 kilograms) of meteorite recently collected came from Mars. The biggest rock weighs more than 2 pounds (1 kilogram). Astronomers think millions of years ago something big smashed into Mars and sent rocks hurtling through the solar system. After a long journey through space, one of those rocks plunged through Earth's atmosphere, splitting into smaller pieces.

Most other Martian meteorite samples sat around on Earth for millions of years, or at the very least for decades, before they were discovered, which makes them tainted with Earth materials and life. These new rocks, while still probably contaminated because they have been on Earth for months, are purer.

The last time a Martian meteorite fell and was found fresh was in 1962. All the known Martian rocks on Earth add up to less than 240 pounds (110 kilograms). The new samples were scooped up by dealers from those who found them. Even before the official certification, scientists at NASA, museums and universities scrambled to buy or trade these meteorites.

"It's a free sample from Mars. That's what these are, except you have to pay the dealers for it," said University of Alberta meteorite expert Chris Herd, who heads the committee that certified the discovery.

He already has bought a chunk of meteorite and said he was thrilled just to hold it, calling the rock "really spectacular." One of the crucial decisions the scientists made Tuesday was to connect these rocks officially to the fiery plunge witnessed by people and captured on video last summer. The announcement and the naming of these meteorites - called Tissint - came from the International Society for Meteoritics and Planetary Science, which is the official group of 950 scientists that confirms and names meteorites.

Scientifically invaluable"

Meteorite dealer Darryl Pitt, who sold a chunk to Herd, said he charges $11,000 to $22,500 an ounce and has sold most of his supply already. At that price, the new Martian rock costs about 10 times more than gold.

"It's scientifically invaluable," Herd said. "These are really beautiful specimens. It's a rare type, so fresh and aesthetically pleasing."

Several of the world's top experts in meteorites, including those who work for NASA, told The Associated Press that they were sure this was a piece of Mars. Tony Irving of the University of Washington is the scientist who did the scientific analysis on the rocks and said there is no doubt that they are from the red planet. Scientists can tell when meteorites are from Mars because they know what the Martian atmosphere is made of, thanks to numerous probes sent there. The chemical signature of the rocks and the Martian air match, Irving said. Another clue is that because planets like Mars are more geologically active, its rocks tend to be much younger - millions of years old instead of hundreds of millions or more - than those from the moon or asteroids.

Most of the Martian rocks on Earth have been around for centuries or longer and have been found in Antarctica or the desert. They look so similar to dark Earth rocks that if they fell in other places, such as Maryland, they would blend right in and never be discovered, Irving said.

Jeff Grossman, a NASA scientist who is the Meteoritical Society's database editor, said there is a higher probability of finding "something interesting" from Mars on these rocks because they fell so recently. However, six months is a long time for Earthly contamination to take root, he said.

Herd said the first thing he would do with the rocks would be to rinse them with solvents to try to get rid of earthly contamination and see what carbon-based compounds are left.

A Martian meteorite that was buried in Antarctica made news in 1996. NASA scientists theorized that the rock, found in 1984, showed signs of traces of life from Mars, fossils of what seemed to be lifelong forms. Even the White House made an announcement about it as the first sign of life outside of Earth. Years of study since then have led much of the astronomy world to conclude that there was not enough evidence to support the claim.

Because known Martian meteorite falls happen only once every 50 years or so - 1815 in France, 1865 in India, 1911 in Egypt and 1962 in Nigeria - this is a once-in-a-career or even one-in-a-lifetime event.

"It's incredibly fresh. It's highly valuable for that reason," said Carl Agee, director of the Institute of Meteoritics and curator at the University of New Mexico. "For someone who knows their Martian, this is a beauty. It's gorgeous." [2]

CBN: Biblical Response to Child Witches

Can a child be a witch? How about a demon possessed kid? A recent New York Times article reports a growing phenomenon in Angola, Congo and the Congo Republic. Parents and families call a child a witch and kick them out on the street. They beat these children and worse.

Sharon LaFraniere's article is a startling and compelling read. She goes on to explain that it's not truly a matter of the children being witches or being demon possessed. It is more a case of families being unable to care for their children. It seems calling your kid a witch is the surest way to "divorce" yourself from your child; some go so far as to beat their children. The families cannot pay for the children, so they get rid of them. Witchcraft seems to be only an excuse. This is so heartbreaking.

The article continues on to say that there are not enough places to care for these children. I am telling you, you've got to read this article!

Here's where true believers in Jesus Christ need to step in. God's best is for His people to take care of widow's and orphans. I cannot say for sure, but my guess is that if there was a big humanitarian push to bring aid to these regions of Africa, this strange practice would be nearly obliterated.

Couple the aid with the teachings of Jesus. All are precious in His sight. Children are a blessing. That God loves us as a good, all-caring Father. There is hope for the future.

The Bible does talk about children being possessed by demons, but in every instance, Jesus casts out the demons with a word. He heals them and sends them home. There are several of these cases...

Mark seven recounts how Jesus heals a little girl from demon possession. All it took was the mother's faith in Him and a word from the Master.

In Luke nine, a boy was possessed by a demon. As Jesus came nearer, the demon "threw him to the ground in a convulsion." Jesus rebuked the evil spirit, healed the boy and gave him back to his father.

In Matthew 17, a boy was being thrown in fire and water - literally being destroyed by the demonic spirit. But Jesus healed him.

In the case of these children in these various countries in Africa, I hope and pray there would be those who would reach out to these families in Christian love. And help meet their physical, mental and spiritual needs. This practice of abusing children in the name of "religion" must end. [1]

My take on Helen Ukpabio

Warning! Below is my opinion.  I do not make a habit of typing things on this blog that I do not source.

I cannot stress enough that Christianity is a big religion.  Africa is a big continent.  Nigeria is a big place.  I am not trying to make any blanket statements. While I see similarities between Congolese witchcraft and the witchcraft in the Nigerian delta, I do not know enough to connect the two.  Like all religion, we cannot look at child witches myopically.

I don't think that anyone is saying that Lady Apostle Helen Ukpabio is a witch killer.  As far as I know, she has never directly harmed a child.  As far as I know, she does not charge for delivering children from witchcraft.  What is being alleged is much more broad.  Ukpabio presides over more than a hundred churches.  She produced several movies about child witches.  While she maintains that these movies are just as fictional as Harry Potter, I disagree. In the western world, witches and wizards are largely fictional characters.  J.K. Rowling does not believe in witchcraft.  In her book, she goes to great lengths to make her magic so fanciful that it cannot be replicated.  Can you find me an unicorn hair or a phoenix feather for your wand?  Unlike Rowling, Ukpabio believes in witchcraft.  She wrote a non-fiction work on how to identify child witches.  The comparison is not with Harry Potter, but with the Left Behind series.  In the Left Behind series, the authors write fiction that they believe to be representative of the facts.  Ukpabio says the movies are fiction, but she teaches the spiritual facts behind the fiction.

Because of her bloody movies about child witches and her broad ministry proclaiming child witches, she is being blamed for the majority of the child witch crisis. The fact of the matter is that child witches do not exist. She claims that these witches are harming people, but it is the make believe that harms people. She could be teaching them about modern medicine. She could be teaching people they should not be superstitiously scared of their own children. Instead she teaches that their child has the power to magically kill them. There is no reason that children should be taught that they are witches. This superstitious teaching is being used by people as an excuse to kill children.

Far from solving the problem, she travels the world blaming the problem on an atheist conspiracy.  Rightly she divines that her biggest opponents do not only not believe in mermaids and witchcraft. They deny the existence of God Himself.  As evangelical Christians this should outrage us, but not for the reasons that she suggests.  An area of the world that boasts allegedly the largest amount of churches proportional to the population is harming thousands of children.  Why should the atheists be front and center dealing with this problem?

Martin Robbins: The dangerous fight for the 'child witches' of Nigeria

"Unlike other ministries where witches and wizards are beaten or stoned to death, Liberty is the only Ministry that shows mercy to witches." So boast the Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries, whose leader, Helen Ukpabio, is claimed to be one of Nigeria's leading 'deliverers' of witches - ministering to up to a thousand at a time.

Humanist campaigner Leo Igwe and other rational-minded people in West Africa take a rather dim view of branding children 'witches', and claim that in many cases deliverance is far from the serene and gentle experience it is claimed to be. According to Igwe and charities working in the region, children "are taken to churches where they are subjected to inhumane and degrading torture in the name of 'exorcism'. They are chained, starved, hacked with machetes, lynched or murdered in cold blood." Some are apparently bathed in acid.

Criticizing these churches is not a great idea if you value a hassle-free life. In 2009 around 200 of Ukpabio's Liberty followers stormed a meeting of humanists as Igwe prepared to speak, bringing the event to an abrupt and violent end. Fortunately the police were called and intervened, but Liberty immediately sued for $1.3m dollars, apparently incensed that a meeting critical of their activities was allowed by the authorities to go ahead. The case was swiftly dismissed by Justice P.J. Nneke at the Federal High Court in Calabar.

Unfortunately the authorities aren't always on the right side. Religious groups and powerful individuals can wield significant power and influence, especially in local communities, and even senior police officers and lawmakers may share their belief in witchcraft.

Regional leader Governor Akpabio recently caused alarm when - in spite of apparently taking steps to tackle the child witch issue - he abruptlyordered the arrest of officials working for NGOs like Stepping Stones Nigeria who are fighting child abuse in the region.

This was supposedly due to allegations of fraud, but NGOs have been successful in bringing the problem of child abuse to the attention of international media like CNN, and the Governor reacted badly to these reports, declaring them to be "part of the media propaganda against the state" and insisting that he had already resolved the problem. The suspicion of many campaigners is that those bringing attention to the problem may be seen as an inconvenience, an embarrassment, and a challenge to his authority.

No evidence of any fraud has been put forward, but Liberty's websitecontains an example of the sorts of smears and allegations that have been circulating against NGOs in Nigeria:

"Be informed that some organizations that don't believe in the existence of God called "HUMANIST" have formed organisations in the name of helping the Helpless Child of Africa from being molested. Stepping stone Nigeria is one of such Organisations, it has been investigated by the Nigerian Police and discovered that "Stepping stone Nigeria" is not REGISTERED anywhere in the world. It is used as an Internet SCAM to extort money from the people who are in sympathy with clips of tortured children by some wicked parents not necessaryingly on account of witchcraft. As at June ending Stepping stone Nigeria has made from the public fraudulently the sum of about One Million, Two Hundred Thousand Pounds sterling (£1.2M)"

The allegations are of course nonsense: in reality Stepping Stones are registered with the Charity Commission in the UK, and detailed accounts are filed there and posted on their own website.

Leo Igwe was due to give evidence to the Akwa-Ibom State Commission of Inquiry into Witchcraft Accusations and Child Rights Abuses today, but found himself arrested and allegedly beaten before being released without charge. He described his ordeal to Sahara Reporters:

"It was a terrible encounter and it was premeditated going by the way they executed the plot to hold me accountable for "kidnapping;" my hands were tied behind me and they beat me mercilessly. [...] My head was swollen and I kept massaging it so that it does not become permanent; from Tuesday night to this morning I was kept incommunicado and had no contact with either my family or my lawyers."

The arrest comes straight after a series of similar incidents: Leo and his father were arrested on the 5th January, and his brother was taken into custody by the state security service a few days later. Regular arrests have become a feature of life for Leo and his family for some years, and campaigners regard them as a pattern of harassment related to his campaigning, and his pursuit of a powerful man living locally who is alleged to have raped a young girl.

Leo Igwe will continue to fight for the children of Nigeria, while theInternational Humanist and Ethical Union are putting pressure on regional authorities to try and bring an end to the arrests. Stepping Stones Nigeria have continue their work in the country in spite of the threat of arrest. All three deserve a lot of support.[1]

Hipster Ariel Weighs in on Child Witches

Lady Apostle Helen Ukpabio is coming to Houston

The genesis of these blogs about Nigerian Lady Apostle Helen Ukpabio has to do with her conference that she is holding in Houston, Texas from March 14th - 25th.[1][2]  She is a noted exorcist of child witches. Earlier she attempted to use Nigerian law to ban all criticism of her.

In the lawsuit, Ms. Ukpabio alleges that the state law infringes on her freedom of religion. She seeks 2 billion naira (about $13 million) in damages, as well as “an order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondents” from interfering with or otherwise denouncing her church’s “right to practice their religion and the Christian religious belief in the existence of God, Jesus Christ, Satan, sin, witchcraft, heaven and hellfire.”

In other words, in the name of religious freedom, Ms. Ukpabio seeks a gag order on anyone who disagrees with her. [3]

She has made a number of claims and I will survey them over the next few days.  

Mermaid Spirits - Part of Your World?

From Nigerian Pentecostal preacher Helen Ukpabio, self proclaimed consecrated Christendom’s first “lady apostle, website:

MARINE SPIRITS DELIVERANCE:
Many people of the world are connected to demonic principality called leviathan. This evil spirit possesses humans through family deities, water spirit and thro cliques formed with witches.
In Nigeria, they call this type of possession –mermaid or mammy water spirit. Actually leviathan does not only operate through the rivers, seas, spirit stream or ocean, but also operate through stones, rocks, thick forest, clay, mud, leaves, roots, and any medium of choice. The spirit of husband and wife delights to pollute the system of their victims’ through sexual intercourse in their dreams.
They caused hardship, failures, disappointments, sicknesses, hard luck, and failures to their victim, childlessness and constant infant deaths are their characteristics.
Evang (Mrs.) Helen Ukpabio is gifted in casting out demons generally including mermaids. The film that teaches on marine spirit is called “Highway to the Grave”. [1]

Dispatches: Return to Africa's Witch Children

Helen Ukpabio - Her side of the story

In the video clip below children are possessed. One with the spirit of stubbornness,"lack of interest in school", bad company, and "power of destruction".  A man goes blind and a woman miscarries a child.  Critics of Lady Apostle Helen Ukpabio have accused her of using her 1999 movie, End of the Wicked, to scare parents into getting their child exorcised.



What does Ukpabio say today about all this?  In 2010 the New York Times asked her.

Their fellow villagers have often seen DVDs of “End of the Wicked,” Ms. Ukpabio’s bloody 1999 movie purporting to show how the devil captures children’s souls. And some have read her book “Unveiling the Mysteries of Witchcraft,” where she confidently writes that “if a child under the age of 2 screams in the night, cries and is always feverish with deteriorating health, he or she is a servant of Satan.”...

...“Do you think Harry Potter is real?” Ms. Ukpabio asked me angrily, in the lobby of the Holiday Inn Express where she was staying. “It is only because I am African,” she said, that people who understand that J. K. Rowling writes fiction would take literally Ms. Ukpabio’s filmic depictions of possessed children, gathering by moonlight to devour human flesh.[1]

Her defense is that End of the Wicked is fiction.  There are also those in her church that put together the following testimonial about three deliverances from their witchcraft.  (In parts of west Africa, witchcraft is a spirit that comes upon you.  One can be a witch, but not know it.  This spirit then uses its host to do evil natural and supernatural things.)

Supposedly Ukpabio does not maim or charge for her services.  According to her, where do these accusations come from?

Be informed that some organizations that don't believe in the existence of God called "HUMANIST" have formed organisations in the name of helping the Helpless Child of Africa from being molested. STEPPING STONE NIGERIA is one of such Organisations, it has been investigated by the Nigerian Police and discovered that"STEPPING STONE NIGERIA" is not REGISTERED anywhere in the world. It is used as an Internet SCAM to extort money from the people who are in sympathy with clips of tortured children by some wicked parents not necessaryingly on account of witchcraft. As at June ending STEPPING STONE NIGERIA has made from the public fraudulently the sum of about One Million, Two Hundred Thousand Pounds sterling (£1.2M)

Be informed that this amount of money is not even Taxed by any government of any country because of the lies that STEPPING STONE NIGERIA has been registered. Very recently security agents of Nigeria have declared Gary Foxcroft the head of the STEPPING STONE NIGERIA and Itauma of CRARN WANTED on account of Fraud, Piracy, forgeries, and threat to life of Lady Apostle Helen Ukpabio.

It is also discovered that Gary Foxcroft is a frontline member ofHUMANIST MOVEMENT who don't believe in the existence of God and of Devil.

They hide behind this movement to solicit for funds from the public using innocent children who are never witches to campaign in order to weep sentiment and sympathy. We all know that when there is anything about children abandonment, stigmatisation, torture and death the whole world will respond because the child is Helpless. This is where Gary Foxcroft and Itauma has won the heart of many. the truth is Humanism simply means ATHEISM. This group says there is no God in Heaven and Helen Ukpabio says there is God in existence and that very POWERFUL. This is the God Helen that Helen is worshipping who has called and empowered her. This group is sponsored by Godswill Akpabio, Akwa Ibom State Governor. The whole world is sponsoring Gary Foxcroft and Itauma to spread their belief "Humanism" [2]

OK, to sum up she is being defamed by those cheating, lying, stealing atheists.  

Frank Gaffney: Part of the Problem

In the ACT for America episode above, Frank Gaffney said the following,

It is the law of the land in Saudi Arabia and Iran, and anyone who thinks that life is like in either of those two countries is the same as life in America obviously doesn’t nothing about Saudi Arabia or Iran. In fact, it is absolutely antithetical, Sharia is, to our Constitution, and the pursuit of it you said in your comment is incompatible with the Constitution’s Article VI, and therefore being a protected religious practice, it is an impermissible act of sedition, which has to be prosecuted under our Constitution.

When he says that Sharia is sedition, I always think of this women.  Gaffney does not distinguish what interpretation of Sharia, he is talking about.  He mentions a Shia school practiced in Iran and a Sunni School that is practiced in Saudi Arabia.  Not every Muslim observes Sharia this way.  Just look at Muslim dissenters in Iran and Saudi Arabia.  For saying that those that observe Sharia are guilty of sedition, Gaffney is part of the problem.

Hauwa Ibrahim first came to international attention in 2003 when she won an appeal for Amina Lawal, a Nigerian woman convicted of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning under Sharia law. Ibrahim has now been involved with more than 150 such cases—using Sharia law to fight Sharia penalties.

A Radcliffe Fellow this year, she spoke to a Harvard Law School audience in February at the invitation of the Harvard African Law Association and HLS Advocates.

Nigeria is divided roughly between the Muslim-dominated north and the Christian-majority south. When civilian rule was restored in 1999, she explained, the new constitution guaranteed freedom of religion and separation of church and state, but the same year, a northern state adopted a Sharia penal code, and 11 others have since followed suit. The tension has been so thick, she said, “you can cut it with a knife. People just want to be at each other’s throats.”

A Muslim, and one of the few women lawyers practicing in her native northern Nigeria, Ibrahim had been a prosecutor for eight years when, in 1999, she was invited by an NGO to put together an appeal in the first case brought under the new law. An unmarried girl who became pregnant was sentenced to 100 lashes (increased to 180 because there was deemed insufficient evidence against the men she said had raped her). Ibrahim went on to develop a pro bono practice defending those most vulnerable under the law: women and children who are poor and often illiterate, “powerless and voiceless.”

But even when representing clients, Ibrahim herself hasn’t always had a voice in Sharia court. Recalling her first appearance, she said: “I stood up to introduce myself. The judge looked around, and in my team are two men, and he says, ‘Hauwa, there are men in the court.’” Ibrahim tried to continue, but the judge stopped her: “Hauwa, there are men in the court.”

She quickly realized her standing as a lawyer was not as important as helping her clients. After that, she often arranged for a male attorney to read her statements to the court. She noted that since then, in at least one court, she has been allowed to address the bench and lead the defense. “Five years after the first encounter,” she said, “there is an opening for us to start speaking.“

When it came to representing Amina Lawal, Ibrahim put together a small team of lawyers as well as a group of Islamic scholars from the University of Cairo. They made the case that the Sharia penal code established certain procedures that had not been followed and that there were facts that had not been proven. Eventually the highest Sharia court in Katsina State dismissed the charges against Lawal, establishing precedent for future cases.

Ibrahim pointed out that she and her colleagues took the case to the Sharia court of appeals, even though they knew that under the Nigerian constitution, the court didn’t have jurisdiction over criminal matters. “But we had no option. It was either life or death,” she said. “We chose life.”

Ibrahim has received awards for her work—including the European Parliament’s 2005 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought—but she also received death threats and accusations that she is being paid by the West to destroy Islam. (She is adamant about not accepting funding for her work.) “Some of what we are trying to do, we may not achieve in our lifetime,” she said. “But it doesn’t hurt to start digging the foundation.”

Humanists and Nigerian Witches

One of the interesting things about the Nigerian witch hunters is that they have been combated by a group of humanists.  These humanists do not believe in the gospel, but they also do not believe in witchcraft.  They are in an unique position to persuade parents that their children are not witches.  However they have been persecuted for their attempts.

Nigerian Humanists have won the latest round in an ongoing battle with witch hunters. Today, 4 Feb. 2010, the Federal High Court in Calabar struck out the case brought against Leo Igwe, International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) Representative in West Africa, by Helen Ukpabio of the Liberty Gospel Church. 

In November last year, Ukpabio went to court claiming that conferences organised by the Nigerian Humanist Movement to tackle witchcraft related abuses infringed on her right to spread the gospel. She asked the court to order the child rights campaigners to pay her two hundred billion naira (1.3 billion US dollars) as damages for “infringement of their rights.” 

“The Church instituted this court action to stop their arrest and prosecution for the attack of July 29 in Calabar,” said Igwe, referring to a physical assault on him last year. About 200 members of the Liberty Gospel Church disrupted an anti-witch hunt conference that Igwe organized in July 2009. (Video of the attack is available here: http://www.iheu.org/iheu-representative-attacked.) The conference highlighted the role of Liberty Gospel Church in ‘trials’ of children suspected of being witches. Many children have been killed after having been found guilty by such ‘trials.’ IHEU has raised the issue of witch hunts in many international forums, including the United Nations Human Rights Council and the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights. 

Ukpabio and her lawyers were not in court. So the lawyer leading the defence team, Barrister Madaki, asked the court to strike out the case due lack of diligent prosecution. And the court granted his request. 

“The striking out of this case is a welcome development,” said Igwe. “It is a victory for justice, human rights and the rule of law in Nigeria. The Nigerian Humanist Movement and its partner groups will continue to work and campaign to eradicate all forms of human rights abuses in the name of witchcraft.”[1]

More on the Nigerian Humanist Movement:

The Nigerian Humanist Movement was founded in 1996 to promote Humanism, defend secularism and provide a sense of community to all non-religious and freethinking Nigerians - atheists, skeptics, rationalists, agnostics and freethinkers. Nigeria is a deeply religious society. And in most cases people relate, interact and marry along religious lines. Religious affiliation becomes a decisive factor when one is seeking employment, doing a business or wants to be admitted into a school or university. Those who do not profess any religion are treated as second class citizens. So in Nigeria most non-religious people are in the closet. They lack any association or community they can call their own. The rights of non-religious people are not recognized. The voice and interests are not represented at public debates and discourse. So NHM was formed to fulfill this important need- to defend the rights and interests of Humanists and the general public and to realize a Humanistic society....  

Since its inception NHM has taken part in several campaigns against anti-personnel landmines, child labor, female genital mutilation, ritual killing, witchcraft, caste discrimination, shari’a law and homophobia.[2]

Witch Doctors Are Importing Children to the UK

I posted something about witch killing in Nigeria. It turns out that traditional African spiritual healers (witch-doctors) have smuggled in at least 400 African children to Britain.  Most of these children come from Uganda (East Africa), but at least one came from Nigeria (West Africa).  Also seriously, Uganda has an Anti-Human Sacrifice Police Task Force?  Awesome.

African children trafficked to UK for blood rituals 

By Chris Rogers BBC News, Kampala and London
[October 12, 2011] 

Over the last four years, at least 400 African children have been abducted and trafficked to the UK and rescued by the British authorities, according to figures obtained by the BBC. It is unclear how they are smuggled into the country but a sinister picture is emerging of why. 

Whether it is through leaflets handed out in High Streets or small ads in local newspapers, witch-doctors and traditional African spiritual healers are becoming ever more prominent in Britain. 

The work many of them do is harmless enough, but there is evidence that some are involved in the abuse of children who have been abducted from their families in Africa, and trafficked to the UK. 

According to Christine Beddoe, director of the anti-trafficking charity Ecpat UK, a cultural belief in the power of human blood in so-called juju rituals is playing a part in the demand for African children. 

"Our experience tells us that traffickers can be anybody. They can be people with power, people with money or people involved in witchcraft," she explains. 

"Trafficking can involve witch-doctors and other types of professionals in the community who are using those practices. 

"Violent and degrading

Figures compiled by Ecpat, combined with those of the Metropolitan Police and Ceop, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, show that at least 400 African children have been abducted and trafficked to the UK and rescued by the British authorities. 

Testimonies from many of these children have revealed that once they arrive in Britain, they are exposed to violent and degrading treatments, often involving the forced extraction of their blood to be used for clients demanding blood rituals. 

Some of these victims agreed to share their experiences on the promise of anonymity because they still fear their abusers. 

One boy explained how witch-doctors took his blood to be used in such rituals: "The traffickers or witch-doctors take your hair and cut your arms, legs, heads and genitals and collect the blood. They say if you speak out I can kill you." 

Another victim feared for her life, saying the "witch-doctor told me that one day he would need my head. 

"Sometimes I would wake up and he would be standing over me with a knife, every night I was terrified that he would do it." 

Meanwhile, a girl from Nigeria remains convinced the spell performed on her means she can never identify her traffickers, for fear her family will die. 

"They told me I was evil and made bad things happen. I believed it and that this was my punishment and what my life would be."Human blood ritual. 

Witch-doctors, or traditional spiritual healers as they prefer to be known, are becoming more prominent in Britain. 

Many offer "life changing rituals", involving prayer and herbs. A price tag of £350 ($547) would not be uncommon. 

But there are some who engage in more sinister practices. 

Posing as a couple with financial problems, I visited 10 witch-doctors. All offered herbal potions to end our money worries, but two also made the offer of a ritual involving human blood. 

Although, there is no evidence that they themselves were involved in the trafficking and abuse of children, it contributes to a disturbing picture of abduction and abuse. 

According to a US State Department report, Uganda has become one of the main source countries for children to be bought and smuggled to Britain. Some 9,000 children have gone missing in the country over the past four years. 

The ease with which a child could be procured was apparent when, posing as a British trafficker, I went looking for help in the cafes and bars in the underworld of the Ugandan capital, Kampala. 

For $250 (£160) a reformed criminal introduced us to Yunus Kabul, who boasted he had been abducting children for witch-doctors in Africa and abroad, for years. 

During our conversation he offered as many children as we required. 

"I have enough, a hundred, no problem. I have so many communications. I have a network across whole of Uganda." 

Mr Kabul arranged a meeting at an isolated hotel. Unaware he was being recorded, he described how he got hold of children for his customers. 

"It all depends how they want it done? I can take you to a family home, I would have no problem to get a child officially or there is a way of doing it secretly, abduct a child."
I asked Mr Kabul if the police would cause a problem. 

"I have to find a house where we can take the supply, the children, in a remote area. So the police cannot find them," he explained. 

Mr Kabul demanded a fee of £10,000 ($15,600) per child. I withdrew from the negotiations.
The head of Uganda's Anti-Human Sacrifice Police Task Force, Commissioner Bignoa Moses, admits there is a problem: "We cannot rule out that children end up abroad because as of now we don't have the capacity to monitor each individual and many simply disappear." 

Back in the UK, despite the testimony of so many victims, the cultural belief in the power of juju is a huge challenge for the authorities. 

One senior police detective says part of the problem is the silence that surrounds the matter.
"While juju is widely believed, it is rarely spoken about publicly. People think even talking about juju might lead to something bad happening to them," says Det Ch Supt Richard Martin, head of the Metropolitan Police's Human Exploitation and Organised Crime Command. 

"This presents officers with enormous difficulties when it comes to investigating these crimes and bringing the perpetrators to justice."[BBC]

Nigerian Witch Killings Primer

Let me put this in context.  Nigeria is a big place.  It is a nation of about 149 million people.  This witch killing is largely taking place in the Akwa Ibom State which has a population of only 3.9 million.  This in no way reflects the majority Nigerian opinion.  Because of international media attention, the Nigerian government has been clamping down on the practice that began only about a decade ago.   OK on to the Human Rights report.

Children accused of witchcraft were kidnapped, tortured, and killed. In September media reported that the public outcry and effort by the government, particularly in Akwa Ibom State, had caused a drop in new cases of children abused for alleged witchcraft. According to two local NGOs, Stepping Stones Nigeria (SSN) and the CRARN, attackers drove nails into children's heads, cut off fingers, tied children to trees, and abandoned them in the jungle. Self-proclaimed "bishop" Sunday Williams publicly claimed to have killed 110 child witches and asserted that Akwa Ibom had as many as 2.3 million witches and wizards among its population of 3.9 million. In 2008 authorities arrested Williams and charged him with torture and murder; he was arraigned in May 2009, and the case continued at year's end. The government did not acknowledge the wider problem of accusing children of witchcraft. The state governor, reacting to international press stories of persecution of children accused of witchcraft in Akwa Ibom, issued arrest warrants for the leaders of the SSN and the CRARN for alleged misappropriation of funds and personal gain. The cases were pending at year's end with outstanding warrants for the shelter's directors.

On September 24, in Akwa Ibom State, a father was arrested after he buried his six-year-old twin sons in a shallow grave; the boys were rescued when villagers heard their cries. The father believed the boys were wizards who were responsible for the death of his wife, their mother. The police asserted that they were ready to arrest anyone who committed a crime under the guise of witchcraft, but a clan leader complained that, rather than celebrating the father who discovered witchcraft in his children, the police were called.

 In July 2009 police in Eket, Awka Ibom State, raided the CRARN shelter that housed 150 abused and neglected children, some of whom had fled their homes after being accused of witchcraft. Police beat children who tried to stop the arrest of two staff members. The two were released later after the governor's office intervened; two girls, aged 11 and 12 years, were left unconscious.[2010 Human Rights Report: Nigeria]

Further Reading
[Children are targets of Nigerian witch hunt]
[Child 'witches' in Africa][Nigeria 'child witch killer' held]
[Children abused, killed as witches in Nigeria]

Update Christine O'Donnell is not a witch.

Prayer Fail: Three London Women Died, Because Churches Convinced Them They were Healed.

Church HIV prayer cure claims 'cause three deaths'

By Andy Dangerfield BBC News, London

At least three people in London with HIV have died after they stopped taking life saving drugs on the advice of their Evangelical Christian pastors.

The women died after attending churches in London where they were encouraged to stop taking the antiretroviral drugs in the belief that God would heal them, their friends and a leading HIV doctor said.

Responding to the BBC London investigation, Lord Fowler, the former health minister responsible for the famous Aids awareness campaign of the 1980s, condemned the practice.

"It's just wrong, bad advice that should be confronted," said the Tory peer, who chaired last month's House of Lords committee into HIV.

Jane Iwu, 48, from Newham, east London, described one case, saying: "I know of a friend who had been to a pastor. She told her to stop taking her medication - that God is a healer and has healed her."

"This lady believed it. She stopped taking her medication. She passed away," said Ms Iwu, who has HIV herself.'Irresponsible' advice

BBC London spoke to a second woman from east London who told of a friend who died after taking advice from her pastor who told her to stop taking her antiretroviral drugs.

Meanwhile, the director of a leading HIV research centre in east London said she had dealt with a separate case in which a person with HIV died as a result of advice from a pastor.

"I've only seen that once, but it has happened," said Prof Jane Anderson, director of the Centre for the Study of Sexual Health and HIV, in Hackney.

"We see patients quite often who will come having expressed the belief that if they pray frequently enough, their HIV will somehow be cured," she added.

"We have seen people who choose not to take the tablets at all so sometimes die."

Lord Fowler condemned pastors giving this advice, saying: "It's dangerous to the public and dangerous in terms of public health."

"It's irresponsible," he said, suggesting pastors should instead "come off the air on it, look at things much more seriously, and not give this completely wrong advice to the public".

A woman from east London says her friend died after her Evangelical Christian pastor told her to stop taking HIV medication

HIV prevention charity African Health Policy Network (AHPN) says a growing number of London churches have been telling people the power of prayer will "cure" their infections.

"This is happening through a number of churches. We're hearing about more cases of this," AHPN chief Francis Kaikumba said.

AHPN said it believed the Synagogue Church Of All Nations (SCOAN), which has UK headquarters in Southwark, south London, may be one of those involved in such practices.

The church is headed by Pastor T B Joshua, Nigeria's third richest clergyman, according to a recent Forbes richlist.

When approached by BBC London, leaders of the church described themselves as Evangelical Christian pastors.

The church's website, which was set up in Lagos, Nigeria, shows photos of people the church claims have been "cured" of HIV through prayer.HIV-Aids healing

In one example, the church's website claims: "Mrs Badmus proudly displays her two different medical records confirming she is 100% free from HIV-Aids following the prayer of Pastor T B Joshua."

According to SCOAN's website, by using anointing water "you are positioned for healing"

"HIV-Aids healing" is listed on the church's website among "miracles" it says it can perform.

"Cancer healing" and "baby miracles" are also advertised.

The church's UK website promotes a monthly "prayer line" for which it says: "If you are having a medical condition, it is important you bring a medical report for record and testimony purposes."

It has posted videos on the internet showing its services in south London, in which participants who claim to have arthritis, asthma and schizophrenia say they have been healed after being sprayed with "anointing water" provided by the church.

Mary Buhari, 44 , from central London, told the BBC she had had a phone conversation with a representative of the church, in which she was told she could be cured of HIV.

"I was told they can cure any illness on Earth through prayer, including HIV," she said.

However, when asked by BBC London if it claimed its pastors can cure HIV, SCOAN responded: "We are not the healer. God is the healer. Never a sickness God cannot heal. Never a disease God cannot cure.

"We don't ask people to stop taking medication," the church added. "Doctors treat; God heals."

The recent House of Lords committee report into HIV awareness said faith groups' approaches to supporting people with HIV had improved but more needed to be done.

"It is essential that faith leaders engage with HIV as an issue and provide effective and truthful support and communication around the subject," it said.

A Department of Health spokesman responded to the report saying: "Over 60 recommendations were made and we will be responding to Parliament in the next few months."[BBC]