Lilith
06-30-2007, 05:38 PM
(gg)
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A Malaysian traditional folk
healer who dances in the nude while treating her
patients has upset some people in the conservative,
mainly Muslim country, a newspaper said Tuesday.
Mokhtar Mohamad Noor, 53, a teacher who wanted his
sick wife to be cured, said the healer gave his wife a
drink and spoke an incantation before she and some
male followers in their 20s and 30s started dancing in
the nude, the Star newspaper reported.
"She kept muttering unintelligible incantations which
sounded like the singing of Koranic verses," Mokhtar
said, adding that the woman sat under a yellow
umbrella and the dance continued before he left with
his wife, tired of the group's antics.
The bomoh, or shaman, whom some superstitious
Malaysians believe can call on spirits to assist in
curative rituals, is based in the city of Kota Baru,
Kelantan state.
"I want the state religious affairs department to take
stern action against the bomoh whose healing practice
is against Islamic teachings," the Star quoted a
neighbor, Fuzi Nor, as saying.
Malaysia is a relatively modern and relaxed Muslim
country where about 40 percent of the population is
non-Muslim, but authorities in Kelantan, which is
ruled by an opposition Islamist party, frown on
departures from Koranic injunctions.
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A Malaysian traditional folk
healer who dances in the nude while treating her
patients has upset some people in the conservative,
mainly Muslim country, a newspaper said Tuesday.
Mokhtar Mohamad Noor, 53, a teacher who wanted his
sick wife to be cured, said the healer gave his wife a
drink and spoke an incantation before she and some
male followers in their 20s and 30s started dancing in
the nude, the Star newspaper reported.
"She kept muttering unintelligible incantations which
sounded like the singing of Koranic verses," Mokhtar
said, adding that the woman sat under a yellow
umbrella and the dance continued before he left with
his wife, tired of the group's antics.
The bomoh, or shaman, whom some superstitious
Malaysians believe can call on spirits to assist in
curative rituals, is based in the city of Kota Baru,
Kelantan state.
"I want the state religious affairs department to take
stern action against the bomoh whose healing practice
is against Islamic teachings," the Star quoted a
neighbor, Fuzi Nor, as saying.
Malaysia is a relatively modern and relaxed Muslim
country where about 40 percent of the population is
non-Muslim, but authorities in Kelantan, which is
ruled by an opposition Islamist party, frown on
departures from Koranic injunctions.