Sickend beyond expression

[elfs]

There are just some things I cannot express myself.

A Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim mother helps her son beat himself with a sword during a ceremony of Ashoura held in Nabatiyeh, March 13, 2003. Shiites in Lebanon commemorate the killing of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, by his rival over 1,400 years ago.

Picture of young boy, maybe nine or ten, bloodied by his own hand during ritual.

Comments

[mouser.livejournal.com]

Yea, well - to be honest, I put that in the same file as the people that crusify themselves every year.

[(Anonymous)]

There is a diffrent. The people who crusify are
adults and fully aware of themselves. I can't
feel any moral condemnation of them greater then the moral condmenation I would hold against a BDSM pertispent.

However this boy is a child, and unable to give informed consent. Therefore I feel that mormal outrage is justified.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of a great quote I read once: "Multiculturalism rarely survives contact with another culture."

[aprivatefox.livejournal.com]

I guess I don't see the redeeming factor in this that other people have seen.

There are things people do in the name of belief that are wrong. I'm prepared to take the loss of objectivity that comes with saying this is one of them. Parents shouldn't do that to their children - not in the name of discipline, not in the name of love, not in the name of religion. Not under any circumstances. I fail to see anything here that makes me think there's something good buried in the subtext - this is not a good ritual.

And yes, people who crucify themselves, handle snakes, and do those sorts of self-destructive rituals exist. I won't presume to step in and tell one of them them they're over the line - but the idea of teaching that kind of destructive practice to a child so young is what strikes me as so wrong about all this. I won't presume to tell a consenting adult he can't engage in a behavior that only hurts himself, but this has crossed out of the realm of consenting adulthood.

(Yes, this is primarily a visceral reaction. I looked at that picture and saw something profoundly wrong about it.)