A 2-year-old was killed by her own family members this weekend -- reportedly from an exorcism ritual gone horribly wrong. The family was supposedly heavily involved in the occult and had been convinced that the toddler girl was possessed. The parents, six other family members, and a maid subjected the girl to an exorcism ritual that lasted some 20 hours.
An uncle of the girl had noticed the household disappear into a room at 2:00 a.m. Neighbors noticed family members praying and burning red packets in front of the house earlier. But by the time someone finally called the police and help arrived, it was too late. Some of the family members were found restraining the child with their entire bodies and the girl had suffocated.
This tragedy took place in Malaysia, but the parents were middle-class educated people. The father of the toddler is an engineer for a multinational company and the mother is an alternative medicine practitioner. How did they get in so deep with a spiritual practice that would lead them to kill their own child? Or that a child could be possessed in the first place? It's so odd that eight family members and their maid were involved in this.
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Those of us who have lived with a 2-year-old know they can be exasperating and willful. They're irrational and they throw tantrums -- and sometimes we're not even sure what they're so upset about. But of all the horrific cases of abuse, this has to be the weirdest lens I've seen anyone use to interpret a toddler's bratty behavior. Possessed? You've got to be kidding me.
You don't need an exorcism to manage your 2-year-old. You don't need to burn candles and you don't need a special ritual. You just need patience, empathy, and love. I'm so sorry these parents couldn't see their daughter for who she was, just a typical toddler.
What's the most frustrated you've ever been with a toddler?
Image via Euromagic/Flickr
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Comments 44
Yes these people are educated but they are also very religious. I wonder if the toddler was exhibiting signs abnormal from the usual toddler tantrums that 2 year olds throw so often. Exorcisms and demonic possessions are extremely serious. I'm not saying what they did was right, I'm saying something smells fishy. I wonder what prompted the belief that their daughter was being possessed. I wish there was more information.
They can be terribly frustating, I once called my mom for back up, dropped DD at her place, and went for a loooonngg walk, then some dinner an dessert, when I went back to get her, we were both calm and happy to be together again.
My son has night terrors and sometimes when hes not awake and rigid and screaming I'm a little scared, more for him than of him, but im scared and it feels like he cant do anything to stop and I feel so bad. But when they started I was suprised at how great i am at not letting fear affect how I've delt with it. I never hesitate and ignore it everytime. I just tend to my son. I do not know how anyone could let fear override your parental instincts or your love for your child.
i wonder why they felt like they needed several adults to hold down a two year old.
this was in another country. Superstitions get the best of people sometimes. The little girl might have had some kid of undiagnosed disorder. My 6 year old has autism and when he was that age I could totally see how some might have thought he was possessed. he would scream for no reason, throw himself on the floor, bang his head off the floor, hurt himself, wake up in the middle of the night just screaming, go into trances where he seemed in his own little world, and stare at things like he was looking through them. All those things could be considered 'possessed' to someone from another country who was raised believing things that we don't. Do I think it was wrong? hell yeah. that little girl didn't deserve that. But we don't have the whole story. They don't even test for autism till the age of 2. Alot of childen go undiagnosed till they are school age. There are a whole lot of other mental disorders it could have been to. I'm sure they didnt' just take a perfectly healthy girl and say she is possessed.
All of these comments have been ignoring cultural and social norms. These people are from a culture where demon possession is a very real possibility to them, and not all that rare. Even in small children. It isn't so much a failure of just these individuals, as it is of their culture. The fact that they are educated only says that they are aware that not all other cultures believe as they do. I bet they can't believe we don't exorcise all of the crazy, or just plain weird, people in our society.
Make no mistake about what I'm saying: What happened to this little girl is a tragedy. Just don't be so quick to be so harsh on JUST the people who killed her. They are to bame, for sure. But, this is a cultural problem too.