I DREAM OF A GENIE TO SUE (or Doris, or Barbara, or Elizabeth). And don’t get me started on angels…

As soon as his shower is over, this genie will get entangled in a moHare law suit.

A Saudi fellow is pissed off that some evil genie is nicking his stuff and harassing him so he is going to sue. Now this is all pretty weird and it is easy to laugh, but we should not be so smug as to think we are immune to this kind of crap.

According to the BBC report,

The family have lived in the same house near the city of Medina for 15 years but say they only recently became aware of the spirit. They have now moved out.

A local court is investigating. In Islamic theology, genies are spirits that can harass or possess humans.

Medina is one of the holiest places in the Islamic world. According to Muslim tradition, Muhammad moved there in 622 CE after he found little support in his native Mecca and a delegation from Medina offered him a job as a mediator and judge over local squabbles. The move, called the “Hijrah” represents the start of the Islamic calendar and the establishment of the first Islamic state.

The genies, or “jinn” are spirits in Islamic theology, capable of taking human or animal shape. They may be good but sometimes are rather malevolent. A Sura (chapter) of the Qur’an is called “Al Jinn”. The term Jinn, from Arabic root JNN means “hidden”, and belief in such spirits are pre-Islamic.

Here is part of Sura 72, cut and pasted from the “Sacred Texts” site.

Say (O Muhammad): It is revealed unto me that a company of the Jinn gave ear, and they said: Lo! we have heard a marvellous Qur’an,
Which guideth unto righteousness, so we believe in it and we ascribe no partner unto our Lord.
And (we believe) that He – exalted be the glory of our Lord! – hath taken neither wife nor son,
And that the foolish one among us used to speak concerning Allah an atrocious lie.
And lo! we had supposed that humankind and jinn would not speak a lie concerning Allah -
And indeed (O Muhammad) individuals of humankind used to invoke the protection of individuals of the jinn, so that they increased them in revolt against Allah);
And indeed they supposed, even as ye suppose, that Allah would not raise anyone (from the dead) -
And (the Jinn who had listened to the Qur’an said): We had sought the heaven but had found it filled with strong warders and meteors.
And we used to sit on places (high) therein to listen. But he who listeneth now findeth a flame in wait for him;
And we know not whether harm is boded unto all who are in the earth, or whether their Lord intendeth guidance for them.
And among us there are righteous folk and among us there are far from that. We are sects having different rules.

Needless to say, the BBC report indicates the difficulty in identifying jinn, but that any court would take any of this seriously seems pretty bizarre.  This guy and his Saudi legal system has a 1400 year old sacred text shaping their beliefs and so that they take the jinn seriously should be of no surprise to us. Now, I do not know why this guy has to resort to a court for compensation from this jinni anyway. Why not pray? Will Allah not protect him in the second holiest site on the earth? Or does Allah work through the courts?

In any case, he should be content with Judge’s decision (earthly or heavenly?), as they say, “As God wills” OR:

Que Sura Sura!

And so, having made fun of all of this, lets turn to Western culture with a blinding flash of the obvious.

Barbara Eden, from old series, “I Dream of Jeannie”

We do not take the jinn seriously. But there is a bit of a but…
But before we get to those,  this Arabian caseis not the first time a supernatural entity has been threatened with court action.

In 2007, the Christian God faced Omaha Senator Earnie Chambers who ostensibly wanted to make a point about frivolous lawsuits but really

Chambers lawsuit, which was filed on Friday in Douglas County Court, seeks a permanent injunction ordering God to cease certain harmful activities and the making of terroristic threats.

The lawsuit admits God goes by all sorts of alias, names, titles and designations and it also recognizes the fact that the defendant is omnipresent.

In the lawsuit, Chambers said he’s tried to contact God numerous times.

“Plaintiff, despite reasonable efforts to effectuate personal service upon defendant ‘Come out, come out, wherever you are,’ has been unable to do so,’” Chambers said.

Ok, this is all good fun, but lets turn to the nasty issue of the legal recognition of supernatural entities in Western courts and the frequent appeals to religious freedoms to ignore laws. . If the ultra Christian Nation nuts get their way, how long will it be before courts have to take seriously claims of possession (by demons or the Holy Spirit) as valid explanations for actions? There have been exorcisms in the US intended to eliminate the demon causing homosexuality. Hopefully, courts will never have to take this kind of treatment of others as anything other than pure abuse.

And while we are at it, lawmakers should clamp down of the bullshit “angel therapy” and similar rubbish. Really, this pseudo-spiritual nonsense in the West is no different than this goofy Saudi trying to take jinni to court. But people are taking it so seriously, it really raises the question of the lack of legal regulation of the industry.

Doreen Virtue (or lack thereof) of AngelTherapy.com who trains people to be “Angel Therapy Practitioners” Yeah, right.

And newspaper should start calling their bluff, too. On June 10, the Lethbridge Herald published an article about an angel practitioner (I don’t think it was one of Misvirtue’s) on the FRONT FRIKKIN PAGE called  There are Angels Among Us . Really, are there?  Here is part of Sherri Gallant’s excellent, objective prose:

The Muller’s angel work began about 15 years ago when Christiane came into contact with 2,500-year-old documents, the Traditional Study of Angels, uncovered in Gerona, Spain in 1975 after being walled up for 500 years during the Spanish Inquisition. The documents detail the names and characteristics of 72 angels and 10 archangels, revealing that each of us has three guardian angels assigned to us at birth, attached to the physical, emotional and intellectual aspects of ourselves. In their book, one can learn (by date and time of birth), the names of their angels and begin to do recitations, through which people learn what work they need to do to achieve their potential. Once evoked, the angels send messages through symbols and dreams. They have no gender, but possess both polarities – like humans, which are created with feminine and masculine traits.

…..

Through angel invocation and the dreams that come afterward, people can learn to analyze their own “stored information,” the sum total of their experiences and memories, learn how their behaviours affect themselves and others and unlock and clear memories that are likely blocking their spiritual progress, or even making them ill or depressed. Once understood, the ability to understand the meaning of previous dreams comes, as well.

Notice that these are not quotes by the peddlers of this mythology, Kaya and Christiana Muller. It is the reporter’s voice here. What kind of newspaper simply repeats promotional material as news?

While we might laugh at Saudi Arabia and the court case against this allegedly malevolent jinni, we should look a little closer to home.

Now, I am hardly recommending a witch hunt, or to outlaw believing things I think are silly, but if people are offering “spiritual healing” their should be some standards to govern it all lest some real harm be done.

And while we are on the subject of blonds from old TV series, lets not forget:

Elizabeth Montgomery (1933-1995, from Bewitched

Farrah Fawcett Majors (1947- 2009), one of the original Charlie’s Angels

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