Is the good Sheikh really concerned about protecting the rights of psychiatric patients or is the prevention of shocking dogmatic sensibilities more important? This report from the Arab News documents a problem that affects all societies, including Saudi Arabia’s.
The National Society for Human Rights in Saudi Arabia yesterday said it would investigate allegations of cruelty to inmates and violation of their dignity by staff of Shihar Hospital, a mental institution in Taif. Al-Watan newspaper reported yesterday that the staff of Shihar Hospital used hoses attached to water tankers in order to wash groups of naked patients without respect for their privacy or modesty.Al-Watan published pictures of groups of naked men in showers being washed with a big hose. In the accompanying report, the newspaper said the cleaners who care for the grounds and clean the building were the ones responsible for washing the patients. Some 600 patients are herded to the showers and the cleaners then turn the hoses on them. Helpless, the victims cover their eyes with their hands in order to lessen the pressure of the water on them. “Sometimes polluted water is used and many patients have become infected with diseases,” reported Al-Watan.
Sheikh Abdul Mohsin Al-Obaikan, member of the Council of Senior Islamic Scholars, condemned the acts and demanded that officials provide more supervision of such hospitals and protect the rights of the patients, especially those who need psychiatric help. “It is forbidden in Islamic law to see a man’s private parts, even when he is dead,” said Sheikh Al-Obaikan.
“It is forbidden in Islamic law to see a man’s private parts, even when he is dead,” said Sheikh Al-Obaikan.
That's why the Muslims I worked with, when in the shower, always wore bathing trunks from the waist and at least to the knees in order to ensure that their private parts could not be seen, even by other men. Oh, how shocking that would have been! (Are they different down below than we are?)
Have you ever thought how deprived married Muslimahs must be if they cannot see their men in all their glory!
And while we're on such a topic, did you all know that when a man makes love with his wife, he must first say: Bismillah ir-rahman ar-raheem (In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful), before proceeding? And did you all know that when all is done and over, the man must proceed to shower himself, for he is afterward sore unclean. He must do this so as not to be punished, for Allah is all-knowing, all-seeing, all-wise!!!
Have you ever thought how deprived married Muslimahs must be if they cannot see their men in all their glory!
Given that, in much of the Arab world, young girls are married off to dirty old goats, they'd probaby be better off using their imagination.
...even when he's dead
This puzzles me somewhat - why is this extra prohibition necessary? Are Muslims are going to say, 'He's snuffed it, quick, now's your chance to cop an eyeful!'?
Still, what do I know? We infidels are forever looking at men's private parts - they're on show all over the dar al harb.
Allah said unto Mohammed; showeth not thy weiner to others for this is forbidden. Washeth thy weiner in warm, clean soapy water and wipeth with a dry cloth avoiding eye contact with weiner. If eye contact is made with weiner washeth thyne eyes with cold water and shaketh thy weiner to the east several times. If thy shaketh thyne weiner too much you are playing with it.
I've been working with the developmentally disabled/mentally retarded for over 30 years. I started back around the time Geraldo Rivera did his career-making expose on "Willowbrook", a Staten Island institution that at the time was, conservatively, a snake-pit. Patient/staff ratios of 50:1, no addressing of needs, rudimentary warehousing of individuals, and high mortality rates due to untreated or undiagnosed conditions such as epilepsy and blockges from ingesting "non-food items". Find the film and watch it for a better idea.(not for the faint-hearted)
Today, the institutions are closed and clients live in group homes spread throughout the community, with 4 to 12 people living in a home.
From wards where there were so many beds that you had to climb in over the footboard because there was no room between them, and bathing facilities that were just a dozen leaking showerheads sticking from the walls in a cold, mildewed cavern, and meal times where you ate in less than a minute because if you took too long your tray was stolen, and clothes, if you got any, were doled out of carts regardless of size(just pants, shirts and boots, underwear and socks were "visit-day" items)
Today, each client has a bedroom, either a single or shared with another, their own belongings(almost everyone has their own TV and cable service, a stereo, all the personal items you could reasonably expect to find by picking a neighborhood house at random. They have dozens of outfits,most become regular clothes-horses), they go on vacations, hold jobs, keep their own money(w/assistance if necc), assist with preparing meals or dine out, in other words the policy of "normalization" has taken over 30 years but it has been very successful.
It takes an enlightened society, or at least enlightened members of a society and sympathetic politicos, and YEARS OF HARD WORK to fix a problem which is global in occurance. The disabled have no political clout, they make people uncomfortable, it is easier to push them aside. If the Saudis want to fix things, they have a long haul ahead of them and if the staff responsible for these people are the underpaid underbelly of society, or uneducated guest workers from abroad, the first thing they need to do it bring in motivated, educated, and at least adequately paid staff. Sadism is rampant where your victims have no voice.
No doubt any time soon the MSM will leap on to the story of the "notorious" Shihar Hospital and the "tortures" and "humiliations" inflicted on muslims there.
No, I don't think so either.
“It is forbidden in Islamic law to see a man’s private parts, even when he is dead,” said Sheikh Al-Obaikan.
Whoa, wait a minute! Doesn't Allah require that males and females shave their genitalia?
According to the Sunnah of the Prophet , as stated on www.understanding-Islam.com, every adult Muslim, as a part of keeping his/her body clean, should remove the hair on his pubic area and that which grows under his armpits.
How can you do that if you can't look at what you're shaving? Well I guess it's ok to look at yourself. Surely Allah wouldn't be so cruel.
That begs another question. If Allah is so ashamed of his handy-work that it has to remain hidden from everyone, why does he have you shave it? Oh yeah, the ways of Allah are mysterious and he knows best, etc., etc.
JanuaryMan, you are in error and your shirk is plain for all to see. Verily you will have a triple punishment!
The correct passage, as all know in the Stumpfi sect (praise be unto the Stumpfi scribes) is:
Q 5: 582 O! Mohammed! The genitals must not be shown unto others, for this is naij. The privates must be washed in warm clean soapy water, for chilly makes the willy nilly. The log must not be flogged nor looked at, but if it must be flogged or looked at it should be done in the direction of Mecca while thinking fondly of your first cousin.
This is indeed fard; it is compulsory on all believers. (Yes, even though we say that nothing is compulsory. Let's face it, even though we don't say it we all know where the rubber hits the road, praise be upon that road.)
T'Allahwalla loves you and it is my hope that in that supreme sublime love he will curse you and burn you with ash and boiling oil for a thousand years in hell.
Wishing you peace and grace and a horrible flaming death if you persist in your unbelief,
Prophet Geoff
BBUH
"That begs another question. If Allah is so ashamed of his handy-work that it has to remain hidden from everyone, why does he have you shave it? Oh yeah, the ways of Allah are mysterious and he knows best, etc., etc."
- f.g.
/sarc
F.G., your comments are naij! Surely you know that allah did not create private parts and then order them shaven merely because "the ways of Allah are mysterious"! Your comment shows the extent of your misunderstanding!
For, as all know, Allah created private parts and then ordered them shaven because he, himself, is mysterious.
I'm sure that you can see the difference.
Prophet Geoff
BBUH
/sarc off
Can it not be concluded that Islam has a nasty habit of hiding all the beautiful parts of both men and women?
T-ham,
Nice post.
My brother was born with cereberal palsey. He was insitutionalized from the age of eight until his death, at the age of 53, three years ago.
I overheard my mom and dad speaking of the poor conditions that he, and those housed with him, were subjected to. But we lived close by, and were able to visit regularly. So any physical abuse was detected right away.
He died of aspiration pneumonia, and I can only imagine that if he had remained in the barrack environment of his early confinement, instead of the group home of his later years, that he would have died a long time ago.
Abuse is abuse, no matter where in the world it is administered and accepted. If Muslim men believe it najis to expose their genitals to others, then that belief could, and should, be used to stop the mass showers.
But is the Sheikh concerned about affected women, too?
This article makes me sad. Helpless human beings, regardless of religion, are be abused, out of expendiency and ignorance. I have often wondered how the Muslims treat mentally disabled people. There must be a good number, considering the high number of inter-family marriages. I am sure that some of the poor souls don't or can't even raise their hands to protect their eyes from the hoses. The Saudis have more than enough money to make the lives of these innocents comfortable. Is this an area where they can reform, or will there be some verse from the Koran that directs them to continue the hoses?
T-ham...interesting. 'Willowbrook' produced federal legislation demanding minimum staffing standards for all mental institutions including state. Minimum staffing standards were supposed to ensure a minimum ratio of employees to patients. To the state, minimum and maximum mean the same thing, so if the ratio calls for three employees and a fourth one shows up, that employee will be assigned elswhere for that day/night. The fourth employee means a lot in patient care and overall saftey. The three that are normally there are overworked, often stressed and sometimes in danger.
This is California I am refering to. There, few patient/clients get private rooms unless they are being locked up. The majority sleep in dorms.
There is a lot of use of restraints and seclusion, and abuse, and up untill about 1960 they were still hosing down groups of patients with a hose at Napa State Hospital...you paint a nice picture, and there is progress, but we still have a long way to go...
Balls!! How could they wash in Arabia in Mohammed's time, there was no water available, unless ofcourse they used sand to wipe off, just like they used pebbles after defacating and urinating.
It is precisely because all reference to things sexual are forbidden, and contact between the sexes is strengstens verboten that Muslims living in countries such as Saudi Arabia are so lecherous!
Hiding everything away is a very unhealthy practice; and actually leads to more promiscuity rather than less! It also leads to a high incidence of homosexual acts and kerb crawling. 'Homosexuality of convenience' can almost be regarded as a normal way of life among the youth and unmarried in countries such as Saudi Arabia! How else can young men, for example, get their kicks when they are forbidden all contact with pretty young women, and at precisely the time when the young men are so frisky? By the way, this is verified in studies on sexuality in the Islamic world.
How healthy can it be to separate the sexes as they do? Moreover, how healthy can it be to bring up your children to be so inhibited, and so ashamed of showing parts of their bodies to others?
This seems to me to be a perversion in itself!
“It is forbidden in Islamic law to see a man’s private parts, even when he is dead,” said Sheikh Al-Obaikan.
Yes, and to remind those who might forget, all the mosques and minarets are built to look like big dicks. Of course, those architectural features might simply be a state-sponsored substitute for the real thing.
But, no matter how you analyze it (funny, serious, Freudian, behavioral, transactional), it is still a perversion, like much else of islam.
Trip to the doctor's office in Riyahd
"Now, please bend over and scoff"