India's Baby-Dropping Ritual (VIDEO)

Believers in western India have been observing a bizarre ritual - they've been throwing their young children off a tall building to improve their health. The faithful have been observing the ritual at a shrine in Solapur, in western India's Maharastra, for more than five hundred years. They believe it will make their children strong and say no accidents have ever happened.

Comments

[RebelPatriot]

about as much sense as drowning a baby and calling it a baptism,

or how about cutting off a foreskin in token honor of some schizo sky god,

or belief that by eating a wafer of bread that you are ingesting the body of a god.

[Synoia]

Don't know about your church, but mine pours a little water on the Baby's forehead. Long way from drowning. You must be referring to the NeoCon Baptism Process for Converting Muslims to Christianity.

[Grazziella]

LOL! That shouldn't be funny but I couldn't help myself.

[wmbear]

NO CHRISTIAN SECT THAT I KNOW OF...

Practices baptism by immersion on babies. Catholics and some of the older Protestant sects Christen babies by sprinkling Holy Water on them. The single thing that ever struck me as marginally logical about fundamentalism was the fact that most fundamentalist sects -- especially the ones that practice baptism by immersion -- do not baptize anyone until they reach puberty or the so-called "age of consent" at which point they are judged to have enough maturity to CHOOSE to join the church of their own free will. (I know, I know, don't start on the brainwashing thing.) Though I no longer consider myself a Christian nor believe in any church doctrines or dogmas, I did undergo baptism by immersion when I was around 16 (and this WAS of my own free will, as my parents were nonbelievers) and it was quite a profound experience, possibly one of the few real mysteries still vouchedsafe to Protestant­ism....

[GomezAdams]

These people are nuts.

[jnratliff]

It's amazing how religon makes some people so stupid.
I think it was Ben franklin that said something like; To live your life through faith or belief you first must close the eyes to reason.
I think that is what most of these nuts have done.

[rcampbell]

This may be a silly custom, but as has been previously mentioned, few are harmed and neither Indians nor Muslims have a monopoly on silly customs. However, I read the story about the 22 year old
Sikh(sp) upper caste member who threw a 6 year old child of a lower caste into burning embers to her death because he accused the child of trespassing. Now, THAT’S a custom I find truly disturbing–and not a Muslim in sight.

[Manni]

But thats not a custom to do that in the Sikh community.

[jpopphan]

I am not a practicing Muslim, but I have studied enough about Islam to know that this baby-dropping business is NOT an Islamic practice. My bet would be that it is a localized phenomenon that has been grafted onto Islam. The Prophet would not approve of this nonsense.

[Manni]

Muslims have a culture of looking at non muslims as infidels who are sub human. Thats their culture! or any non muslims drawing a cartoon of Mohammad some to be killed. Thats their culture.

[iluvsam]

Ugh. I long for the day when religion in all forms will just go away. Here we go with more of the same ridiculousness. How can anyone with one iota of common sense believe this stuff? I'm really at a loss. Can someone who is religious please, please, please explain to me how a religious person's brain works? It is just baffling to me. People blowing themselves up in the name of God, the crazy Mormon sect who abuse children, the entire history of the Catholic Church, now throwing babies off of buildings.­..it is just too much for this atheist to understand. What happens in a religious person's brain that allows all common sense and human instinct to simply disappear? Is there a neuroscientist on HuffPo anywhere?

[Boobaloo]

Well said. I agree.

[Ajita]

Hey iluvsam, look up the "Beyond Belief" web site. Check out V.S. Ramachandran, he has been studying the neurological basis for absurd beliefs. There is also lots of fun stuff from Dawkins and the like.

[iluvsam]

I've read all the Dawkins stuff. I'm going to check out Ramachandran. Thanks!

[Horst]

Another brilliant Muslim ritual. Can't wait for Shari'a to come to our shores.

[Boobaloo]

Another brilliant comment by Horse.

You never miss an opportunity to troll a Muslim related story to broadcast your hatred, bigotry and just plane, mind imploding stupidity.

America is the one exporting Sharia Law, Big Brain ... we've enshrined into the new Iraqi Consitution, which is supposed to be an emerging 'democracy' but, don't let pesky little things like facts get in the way of your enlightening Hate Speach.

[Manni]

Why are you mad at Horst. Shouldn't you be mad at the Lefty Hufftingon post for never missing an opportunity to troll a Muslim related story to broadcast uts hatred, bigotry and just plane, mind imploding stupidity?

[jesuswazasocialist]

Hindu its an Hindu custom.

[Manni]

No its not. But here in Texas I found the Christian custom is for 50 yr olds to do 15yr old virgins!

[TEEHead]

It is SO easy to raise the ire of Leftists lacking a sense of irony (yeah, I know...red­undant...)

In response to multiple of you:

Wow, what depth...wh­at telling arguments.­..

What a typical way to avoid the question. No problem acknowledging the historical horrors of Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, yada, yada, yada. Of course, most religions AS A WHOLE have modernized over the past couple hundred years, whereas the Muslim world seems to have gone a bit backwards since Saladin around 1200.

So...Mr. Smarty-Pan­ts-Cowardl­y-Chickenp­oop-Don’t-­Want To-Face-Re­ality-And-­Answer-The­-Damn-Ques­tion.

Why? Why does the “moderate” Muslim world have such a hard time rejecting its fanatics? Where are the universal condemnations of violence against the innocent? Why does the Hamas version of Mickey Mouse on TV teach their kids that Jews are subhuman and the Best Job in the World is Suicide Bomber? Where are the Muslim versions of smug a-holes to make irrelevant arguments about its cultural historical horrors? Where is the goddamn BACKBONE in the Muslim world to stand up against its worst element?

[desthmoneses]

Why is the majority of the U.S. population not outraged at the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi civilians? Its the same reason muslims don't care whether or not U.S. troops are beheaded on t.v. they think we the other party deserves it. I doubt you've shed any tears over the thousands of dead innocents in Iraq, why should they care if terrorist were to kill you or your countrymen?

[iluvsam]

One should be outraged at both. Both acts are equally unethical.

[TEEHead]

Why would you inflate the figures of Iraqi dead by a factor of 5-10? Aren't 50,000-100,000-ish people enough dead to support an argument? Why lie about the numbers - it only weakens your case.

BTW, how many people were being killed under Uncle Saddam - per week, per month, per year?

But yes, I have felt sorrow for all of those dead in Iraq. I also haven't lost sight of who actually killed them. It wasn't US soldiers, was it? Most of the Iraqis killed have been killed by MUSLIMS. Civil war sucks, kids - always has, always will.

So, yes, you do hear about death and atrocity in Iraq. We are bombarded by how horrible our soldiers are over there every freakin' day. TV vultures love to plaster the abberations at Abu Ghraib across our eyes for months on end, acting like that's the standard of behavior. But you know what - America does own that atrocity, because those were our soldiers and we should be ashamed of them. And those scumbags are in jail. But that's not all or most or even a significant percentage (say 10%...) of our soldiers.

But, where is the similar acknowledgement of wrongdoing from the Muslim community? You said it yourself - "...they think the other party deserves it" How about they grow up and take responsibility for the actions of the community.

[Boobaloo]

'Muslim World' .... TEEhead, if you had any functioning brain cells you would know that the entire world is the Muslim World ... there are 1.4 BILLION Muslims in every nation, every culture, speaking every langauge..­.40 Million Muslims in China alone.

I am so sick of morons like yourself with the same rhetoric of hatred, ignorance and Islamophob­ia...your half-truths and full blown lies have grown TIRED. I've yet to see 'Christians and Jews' take any responsibility for their gencidal behavior in Israel alone, who killed a mother and her four children in Palestine just a few days ago. That's the 'moderate' Jews and Christians ... but of course there are 1.5 Billion Christians, 99% of which think the American EVangelical Zionist tradition is NUTS and MANICAL.

Im also really TIRED of hearing the much repeated lie that Arabs teach their children to hate the poor little Jews...the international campaign of over 60 years to demonize Arabs and Muslims and whip the United States into a frenzy of hatred was instigated, supported and maintained by Jews. The amount of hatred in Israel for Muslims and Christians is abhorrent, Jewish toddlers are taught to spit on, taunt and throw stones at Palestinians. Then Jewish children go to school where they're taught their superior, Gods Chosen people and all non-Jews are worthless animals worthy of death.

[TEEHead]

Try this experiment:

Go to any city around the world (sure, you're entire caliphate, Boobaloo) and yell out the following:

Jesus was a nose-picker!
Moses ate camel turds!
Buddha was a fatso!
Mohammed was a poo-poo head!

Where would you be most likely to get attacked for those words and who would be most likely to attack you? Where would you fear for you life?

A bunch of transvestites barged into a SF catholic church last year and basically desecrated the mass. NOTHING happened.

Remember The Last Temptation of Christ – Jesus getting’ freaky! A few picketers, but no one *bombed* anything.

Some European guys draw a cartoon of Mohammed and the unwashed peasants riot in the middle east. And “rational, modern Muslims” in the west like CAIR – do they distance themselves from such absurdity? Do they try to educate their Muslim brothers about free speech? Nope – they condemn the papers running the cartoons. Nice.

Hey Boobaloo – Mohammed was an fat, nose-picking, camel-turd eating, poo-poo head.

Now, make a decision about whether you want to live in a modern, secular world where you sometimes have to tolerate other peoples ideas, their religions and yes, sometimes their foolishness. Or do want to crawl back to the cave, grab your machete and try to cut my head off. I already know what answer no small number of the 1.4 BILLION of your friends have chosen.

[TXfemmom]

Idioacy, sheer lunacy. With the behavior of the countries over there, and their breeding propensity, perhaps they could drop about half a billion men on their heads and the place would be a lot safer for the world.

[Ajita]

Racist, sexist and ignorant. First of all this was not an example of behavior of a whole country, it was the lunacy of religion evidenced in a section of the uneducated populace. And " Breeding propensity"? The descendents of the British are easily more populous, adjusting for land size and original population numbers. Only fools look at a snapshot of the world as it is and make assumptions. India does not a have a colonial past and its citizens have not colonized entire continents. Get some perspective. That having said, religions have a way of increasing population numbers. Just look at Muslims in the Arab world and fundamental Christian sects right here at home. And finally, you want to drop a billion men on their heads? A billion MEN? Granted many men do vile things but your generalized hatred is evidence of a dangerous mindset, not unlike many of those men you condemn.
You say "behavior of the countries over there" An international poll last year found that Indians have the highest favorability opinion of the US, next only to .....the US, of course (over 70% I think). Its a pity that some people are so ignorant as to equate our democratic allies with countries that are truly anti-American.
Just to make it clear, I am not justifying the actions of these religious fanatics, just reacting to the idiocy (thats the right spelling, by the way) of the comment above.

[Boobaloo]

Ajita: Disgusting, isnt it?

Welcome to the new America brought to you by 60 years of a Zionist campaign to reduce Muslims to animals in the eyes of the west inorder to keep Israel sitting pretty.

[Manni]

Ah..someon­e from Texas. A Jesus believing Christian culture/Ritual in Texas is not to throw babies...b­ut to have sex with them.

Sheesh!

[Blurp]

What is this? India's Funniest Home Videos?

[Manni]

Have you seen America's funniest video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T37xAYf5luM

[desthmoneses]

Don't christians submerge their babies heads under water to insure their child has a chance to get into heaven? In fact don't some christian adults do it? Maybe you christians have more in common with these people than you do with an atheist like me.

[jpopphan]

In fairness, only a few denominations practice baptism-by­-immersion and very few of those believe in infant baptism. Most times when infants and children are "baptised" they are anointed with the water instead of being immersed in it.

Christian baptism arises from a passage in the New Testament where Jesus was "baptized" by John the Baptist. But even Jesus wasn't "dunked" if I remember correctly; he had water poured over his head. And even this early form of baptism was based on the Jewish notion of cleanlines­s/uncleanl­iness and exists today as a mikva.

[Manni]

Christians don't submerge them...her­e in Texas, the Ritual/custom is to have sexual intercourse with the young uns!

[CaptainHowdy]

http://www.jackbernstein.org/

[pkafin]

Thanks for the laugh. It has absolutely nothing to do with the article, but it is quite a rant.

any book or article that starts with a self aggrandizing cry for attention such as :

"THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK ARE EXPECTED TO BRING A STRONG REACTION FROM THE ZIONIST JEWS."

and ends with the laughably silly assertion that:

"It is a waste of time to talk about fighting communism and the problems it has caused; and it is a waste of time to talk about the international problems facing America UNLESS the main cause of those problems has been identified. The cause of course is the Zionist oriented Jewish International Bankers and the Zionist Jews who operate behind a cloak of secrecy."

Is bound to be a rollicking good read that will lend tons of credibility to whomever posts a link to it.

Too funny.

[laborgrunt]

This has nothing to do with the "Muslimness" of these people. They live in India a nation that has entirely too many ppl. There are a lot of dumb things that happen over there. I do not see the need to connect the fact that most of the ppl that do this are Muslim to this incredibly idiotic and backward ritual.

[freshnotbitter]

never shake a baby

[Counterglow]

Who's shaking them? They're just checking out how high they bounce.

[Manni]

Yeah..riii­ight.. these Hindus are unfairly spoiling the good reputation of the muslims world wide!

ROFLMAO!

[feculentlibs]

ALL of the people who do it are Muslim. ONLY the Muslims.Th­ey own this idiocy. Nice try, Muslim-apologist.

[laborgrunt]

Your a typical Republican Fascist.

[laborgrunt]

Plus please explain to me where it says ALL of the ppl that do it are Muslim? Are you sure that Hindus don't do it?

[Trueheart]

Google it. Media sources in the UK are saying it is a custom shared by HINDUS and MUSLIMS.

[jpopphan]

This is not a practice based on the Quran or the teachings of the Prophet. It is an Indian practice that has been grafted on to Islam. Most Muslims outside of India are as horrified by the notion of child-dropping as the rest of us are.

IMHO, it borders on bid'a (innovation) and is not something that the world Muslim community would accept as proper Islamic practice.

[wadenelson1]

I wonder if this is where Michael Jackson gets his wacko ideas about parenting.

[mathme]

I hope Reuters comes to the US to cover Christian Snakehandlers.

[TEEHead]

You know, it’s interesting. Folks like Nefertiti are always saying “it’s just 10% of Muslims that drop their babies off buildings.­” Well, I got out my slide rule and started ciphering a bit…

10% baby droppers
10% genital mutilators
10% suicide bombers
10% AK-47 terrorists
10% decapitating terrorists
10% radical, hate-mongering clerics
10% honking horns and cheering in the streets after 9-11
10% rioting over cartoons of Mohammed
10% hate Jews
10% hate Christians
10% hate Hindus
10% big fans of Taylor Hicks (a sure sign of evil and depravity)

So far, that’s like 120% of Muslims! That must mean we’re including some folks from MSNBC in the “radical, hate-mongering clerics” and “honking horns and cheering in the streets after 9-11” categories…maybe I need to trade the slide rule for a calculator…

(continued…)

[TEEHead]

(...contin­ued from above...)


Anyway, my point is when we get crazies from some other group, you can usually classify them as the individual nutjob, not a group behavior (well, except maybe for the Scientolog­ists...). When some sick twist bombs an abortion clinic in the name of Jesus, it’s tough to find many Christians saying “Well, if it wasn’t for the Bush foreign policy, that guy wouldn’t have had to go there...ma­ybe he deserves the 72 virgins...­”. Even the Mormons are aghast at those Texas polygamists with bad hair. However, you can always find busloads, hell Madrid Trainloads, of “regular” Muslim apologists rationalizing their “10%’ers” insane behavior.

So...why? This little rant isn’t an answer – it’s a question. WTF are you “mainstream Muslims” thinking? Why don’t you guys take a stand for, gosh, I don’t know, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Truth, Justice, and the Muslim Way? Whatever, just not dropping babies, rioting over cartoons, and strapping nail bombs to your kids so they can go blow up other kids.

You’re not the first ones I’ve asked – I just still don’t get it.

[AJTheReverb]

I married a muslim, turns out her and her family dont do so much killing.

Guess you haven't been to Dearborn Michigan lately.

[mathme]

Worst interpretation ever.

[TEEHead]

Glad you were able to respond with such a thourough analysis before reading the entire post.

The "continued" part was intended to be a clue....

[CaptainHowdy]

You forgot to mention the Israeli Mossad agent that were filing and cheering over the 9/11 attack in New Jersey...

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/fiveisraelis.html

[feculentlibs]

Ahhh,you're one of those.

[TEEHead]

Yeah, ONE agent vs whole towns...

See response 5/2/08, 1 am

[pkafin]

Isn't it hard to "forget to mention" something that is completely unrelated to the topic at hand?

It's a bit like noting that you forgot to mention the value of Pi or that the earth is round.

Unless you intimating that those 5 phantom Israelis are of the 20% of the Israeli citizenry that are Muslim. Even then, it's still quite off base from the topic and somewhat moronic of you to throw in to the conversation.

I don't know, perhaps you are one of the 10% of internet posters that thinks the world revolves around Israel. It doesn't. But It is clear that some people, like yourself perhaps, think that it does.

[CaptainHowdy]

The Inquisition

The Dark Ages

The Witch Hunts

[TEEHead]

See response 5/2/08, 1 am