Saudi Couple Hammers Nails Into Sri Lankan Maid

When I first saw this headline, I thought some editor was being cute.  Wrong.  The headline is straight-up and horrific. 

The AP reports:  "Doctors removed 13 nails and five needles from a Sri Lankan maid who says the couple she worked for in Saudi Arabia hammered them into her body.  L.G. Ariyawathi, who was hospitalized with severe pain after returning Saturday from Saudi Arabia, has said the family she worked for punished her by heating the nails and needles before sticking them into her.  X-rays showed that she had 24 nails and needles in her body," according to her doctor in Sri Lanka. 

The nails ranged in length from one to two inches (2.5 to 5 centimeters) while the needles were about one inch (2.5 centimeters) long. They were removed from her legs and forehead.  Her doctor also reported that there remained six more needles in her hands that could not be removed because to do so might damage her nerves and arteries, but that they would not be harmful to her.

Apparently this torture was punishment because the woman complained of not being allowed to rest, and of not being paid.  She had been in Saudi Arabia since March but had only received two months' salary.   Apparently also, the Saudi wife heated the nails and needles, then held the maid down while her husband inserted the needles and nails into the maid's body. 

Some 400,000 Asians work as immigrant workers in Saudi Arabia.  This particular victim, L.G. Ariyawathi, was saving the money she had earned to build herself a house when she returned to Sri Lanka.  Sri Lankan authorities have made a formal complaint through the Saudi embassy, and have been assured that they will look into the allegations.

Now, before anyone accuses me of being racist toward Arabs, I do not post this to try to say only in Arab cultures do atrocities such as this happen.  This, of course, would simply not be true.  Human beings all over the world, of any faith or no faith, have proven themselves time and time again to be capable of ridiculous cruelty toward animals, and other humans.

I do post this in partial response to those who continually describe Islam as solely a religion of peace and harmony.  Islam, just as Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Mormonism and any other religion you can name, has its share of sick twists who would inflict this kind of punishment and torture on other human beings.  Radical fanatics aside, it is qualitatively no better or worse than any other major religion, and on this score at least, should not be granted any different privileges or treatment than any other.  In other words, no double standards, please.

A recent story here in Lexington, Kentucky, provides an interesting contrast.  A local church, a denomination within the Christian faith, sought to purchase a retired elementary school in an older neighborhood in Lexington, to convert the building into its church.  Many neighbors expressed concerns about traffic, parking, activity levels, etc., that would be generated by a church moving in.  The local government board charged with approving such transfers did issue its approval, but after many conditions were placed on the building's use by the church, the church decided to back out and seek other quarters.

Is this really so different than the Manhattan Mosque story?  Yet no one in this area is accusing the neighborhood, or the planning board, of any sort of religious discrimination in rendering its decision.

The double standard continues.

Comments

[rick allen]

You are quite right, the story shows how we must be vigilent about the rich. We know what Jesus said about the difficulty of their entering the Kingdom of Heaven.

[Sibyl]

There are similar atrocities in other pagan cultures.. Hindu and Buddhist as well as Moslem women and children are sold into slavery. In these countries, nuns who run orphanages are raped and murdered, medical teams slaughtered, whole communities wiped out.

However, in our own culture, pre-born children are slaughtered and women used as objects of lust and gratification every second in the USA. Healthy infants are killed and dissected in the birth canal and their mutilated bodies thrown in the garbage. The doctors who perform these atrocities are called saints by Episcopal church leaders. Rowan Williams' palace is in the rape capital, the majority committed by Moslim/Middle Eastern men, of the UK and not once has he spoken out against these atrocities.

The West, even the 'Christian' countries are as prone to commit brutal and barbaric acts without appropriate justice due to complicit and uncaring leaders as the Middle East and the East.

I am not defending the brutal hard-hearted inhumane Saudi Couple.

However, I know too well how hard a heart can be...before coming to Christ, I was 'pro-choice' consenting to the slaughter. My humanity had been perverted by my parents' alcoholism, adulterous, promiscuous and incestuous acts. I was abused from birth.

Both of my parents had suffered in their childhoods, lost their same-sex parents, but had made wrong choices. Instead of turning to The Father, the Holy Parent who could have healed and filled them with good, they turned to alcohol, cigarettes and sex to numb their pain. My parents modeled behavior, their values and perverted view of human life had become mine. Little by little, I made the same choices and committed the same sins. By the time I was an 'adult' I saw no wrong in 'choosing not to have this child' in having a 'procedure' to 'terminate' a 'pregnancy'...to me, this was a 'fetus' not a human being. Not knowing God nor the saving grace of Jesus Christ, not being born again nor having my mind renewed, I was not truly and fully human.

I have had to grieve my sins and learn God's views and ways...to believe in His love, forgiveness and care for me is the hardest task of all.

I hope we, the church, can repent in time to prevent the punishment that is due us...for we have given place to the devil in our hearts, minds and lives and in Christ's Church.

[Alice C. Linsley]

Any news about Christopher Platt's funeral?

Also, Chip Valentine died on Dec. 28.

May God grant both a place of repose in that place of eternal Light.

[girlslovefashion]

By the time I was an 'adult' I saw no wrong in 'choosing not to have this child' in having a 'procedure' to 'terminate' a 'pregnancy'...to me, this was a 'fetus' not a human being.

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