Lou Syrah, expert in Islamic exorcisms: "In France, exorcisms are imported from Saudi Arabia"

Lou Syrah, expert in Islamic exorcisms: "In France, exorcisms are imported from Saudi Arabia"

The writer and journalist Lou Syrah, at just 31 years old, has written one of the books that best illustrates a disturbing reality because of how much it says about how the yearning for religious feeling has returned, at least in France. Her theme is exorcism, specifically the one practiced in Islam.

Louisa (Ed. Goutte d'Or, 2021) is the name of the volume that Syrah has written. These days, his book and his knowledge of the subject of Islamic exorcism are recurring sources in the French media that report on the different cases of deaths of people subjected to this ritual. Louisa, the protagonist of the journalistic investigation of Syrah, died in 1994, in the first violent Islamic exorcism reported in France.

Inspired by a version of Saudi Islam, this exorcism ended in the death of young Louisa, who was, among other things, beaten and strangled. The responsible imam was sentenced to seven years in prison, but it did not serve to deter those who practice an exorcism that many today use to do business. "It has become an activity that is as flourishing as it is illegal," says Syrah in this interview with NIUS on behalf of "prophetic medicine."

Syrah, raised in a working-class neighborhood in northern France, declares herself an atheist. She is the daughter of a Catholic mother who works in the fish industry on the Opal Coast and a Muslim father of Algerian origin. His father, diagnosed with bipolar disorder, also underwent an exorcism before being hospitalized.

“Her parents, my grandparents, who came from Algeria, had no resources to deal with this drama. That's why they resorted to the only thing they knew: magic”, says Syrah. This "magic", however, has little or nothing to do with the "prophetic medicine" that, starting in the 1990s, would come to France from Saudi Arabia. “There are as many exorcism rituals as there are forms of Islam,” recalls Syrah.

“In the 89/90s, Saudi Arabia wanted to export its religious model and distributed scholarships to young Europeans, and there were French people who went to study theology at their universities. It is there, in Saudi Arabia, where young Frenchmen, like the exorcist who killed Louisa, learned a type of violent exorcism," says Syrah, who not only has critical words against that Arab country.

To the French authorities, both political and religious, Syrah points out for having let this happen. From what she says, it seems clear that there is too much complicity in France with the Saudi regime.

Q: In this interview we are going to talk about Islamic exorcism. His book has brought this issue into the French public debate. To what extent was Islamic exorcism an unknown reality in France?

From my point of view, it is still an unknown reality because we only talk about it when there are accidents. There needs to be a death or a judicial process for the media to address the issue, despite the fact that it is an issue that has always existed. In the 1970s, the French press was already covering Catholic exorcisms in rural areas, branding Catholics as "hillbillies" or "uneducated" stuck in the past.

Detail of the cover of Lou Syrah's book.Ceded.

However, the practice then already reached all areas of society. Because then it was also practiced by Catholic priests in Paris. And even today, because the number of Catholic exorcisms in France has grown enormously. It is somewhat the same phenomenon that we have experienced with Muslim exorcism. The press and the public powers have only been interested in the prism of the events. And always considering that they are isolated cases. There I see something quite French. French secularism has its advantages and its defects, because by confining religious practices to the domestic space, it makes them invisible. In the end, we will believe that they do not exist.

Q: We knew about exorcism in Europe through the religious experience of Christians. It even became popular culture with the 1973 William Friedkin film 'The Exorcist'. What is the difference between Islamic and Christian exorcism?

There are many similarities between Islam and Christianity. To begin with, in the writings. The figure of the devil exists in the Koran, as in the Bible, and is also an agent of disorder that God expelled for refusing to kneel before his creation: humanity. In a general way, like the other two monotheisms that have preceded it, Islam takes up the same figures. Angels and demons coexist with the same complexity as in Christianity. In Islam, there are also the figures of the spirits, the djinns, which, moreover, are not exactly present as evil.

There is a passage in the Qur'an that talks about this. The Sura 'The Ants', which tells of the meeting between King Solomon – considered a prophet by Islam – and the Queen of Sheba. There King Solomon is told to lead an army of men, djinns and birds, whose language he controlled. I am telling you all this is to tell you that the devil and spirits exist in the Qur'an but there is never any mention of exorcism in the Qur'an. I take this detour because it seems necessary to me. We often forget to remember that magic pervades all sacred texts, from the Torah to the Bible to the Koran. Possession existed before monotheism. Religion integrated them.

Lou Syrah, Islamic exorcism expert:

Q: In the book, you recount the exorcism of Louisa, that young woman who died in the 90s in an Islamic exorcism that took a violent turn. But not all Islamic exorcisms are non-violent, right?

Yeah, I was just going to say that. There is no 'recipe' for exorcism in the Qur'an. But the Qur'an, being the word of God, is considered to have a certain magical power. Its reading would allow rid of evil. Precisely what the roqya means, the “exorcism” in Arabic, is “recitation”. Its reading serves as a prayer to "rescue". Reading the Koran is the most common exorcism, the most practiced, and, in this sense, it is harmless.

The ritual has been adapted to the countries in which Islam has taken root, although there are things that are constant in the practice of exorcism, such as the use of 'purifying' salt and water, something that is also used in rituals. Catholic exorcisms. Some medieval theologians also advocated the use of macerated rose water... things like that. For the rest, there are as many exorcism rituals as there are forms of Islam. The Sufis, for example, the esoteric current of Islam to which my paternal family belongs and which is very present in Algeria, devote themselves to the cult of healing saints.

Q: In your book, you say that your father was subjected to an exorcism. Could you explain what kind of exorcism he experienced?

It's hard to tell how my father was exorcised. He has nothing left but a vaporous memory. My father, who was born in France, was experiencing one of his first crises at the time. Shortly after, he would be diagnosed as bipolar. But before they took care of him in the psychiatric hospital – with all the traumas that being hospitalized then could include – his parents, my grandparents, who came from Algeria, had no resources to deal with this drama. So they turned to the only thing they knew: magic. They called what is called taleb, healers. They made him drink potions, they gave him magic amulets, they prayed to him, this kind of thing.

Q: You were saying that there are as many Islamic exorcisms as there are forms of Islam. Could you evoke how many there are?

Muslim exorcism has been adapted to pre-existing local cultures before the arrival of Islam in that territory. This still happens today. It is not possible to say, therefore, how many there are. In Morocco, there are "seers" and "witches" who practice a form of exorcism close to shamanism. They turn to the spirits to free them from possessions.

There are also exorcism rituals with music, for example, in the well-known Sufi brotherhoods, of which we all know Gnaua music but less is known about the cultural use of that music. It is a trance music. There are also other Muslims who use amulets, sometimes pages from the Koran that some Muslims keep in their pocket or stick on a piece of clothing. These are practices that have been competing with conventional medicine for a long time. Today both coexist harmlessly.

Q: However, the death of Louisa, which was unprecedented in France, shows the existence of violent exorcisms. When did this other type of Islamic exorcism arrive in France?

The so-called “sharia” exorcism, of which Louisa was a victim, is an exorcism imported from Saudi Arabia. It corresponds to a branch of Islam called “Hanbalite”, Salafi for short. It is not a majority in France. In the years 89/90, Saudi Arabia wanted to export its religious model and distributed scholarships to young Europeans, and there were French people who went to study theology at their universities. It is there, in Saudi Arabia, that young Frenchmen, like the exorcist who killed Louisa, learned a type of violent exorcism, inspired by literature from the Middle Ages. Returning with a diploma from Medina, the city of the prophet, these young people had no trouble finding a place in the French mosques.

Q: Could you describe what Saudi exorcism practices are practiced in France today?

The two most popular great practices in France are the roqya scharia – the so-called “legal” exorcism – and the hijama, a bloodletting ritual with cupping that aims to heal the soul and body but also free from the presence of a spirit . These two practices together are called "prophetic medicine." They would be inspired, they say, by the prophet's recommendations and it is present in the Sunna (the equivalent of the Gospels in Islam).

When I said that there was no mention of exorcism in the Qur'an, I forgot to say that, however, exorcism is dealt with in the Sunna [the set of traditional social and legal customs and practices, ndlr.]. There you can read a lot about how the prophet healed with plants and how he recommended bleeding... in short, the medicine of that time. The problem is that the Saudis, who have a literal reading of the texts, have rehabilitated all this to make a science of it. And today, in Saudi Arabia, there are prophetic medicine clinics, where people go to cure the devil, bleeding themselves. And you will say to me: how could something like that have appeal to the French public?

Q: How could something like that have appeal in France?

Saudi Islam has spread everywhere with the same creed, roughly: “we are the country of the prophet, our Islam is true, yours is false, let us teach you”. The same thing happens with exorcism. The immigrants have abandoned the Sufi or Gnaua rituals or those they had in the “village”, because the young people who came from Saudi Arabia said that this was a sin, or even worse, that it was witchcraft. This is how this has been able to prosper, based on the lack of culture of the people. Saudi Islam was neither better nor truer, it was different and quite dangerous in terms of exorcisms because it recommends beatings to drive the devil out of the body.

Q: What has been the reaction of the Islamic authorities in France to these practices?

There were not enough people who denounced this because most of the notable French Muslims, chosen by the French authorities, practice exorcism themselves. When the exorcist who killed Louisa is released from prison, the rector of the great mosque of Paris himself, Dalil Boubakeur, found a place for him in a mosque. The exorcist was of Algerian origin and Dalil Boubakeur was already under the authority of the Algerian state. He sought to lend a hand to a 'compatriot'.

In addition, we must not forget that the representatives of the Muslim cult are between two waters. Saudi Arabia is an extremely strong symbolic power for Sunni Muslims because it is the country of the prophet and to carry out one of the pillars of Islam, the pilgrimage, one must be able to enter the country. Numerous French Muslim notables have become rich by opening pilgrimage travel agencies. They could hardly bite the hand that fed it.

Q: What has been the reaction of the authorities of the French state?

None or almost none. France has always been a great friend of the Saudi kingdom. There is some irony in something that is not remembered in the book, but when the process of Louisa's exorcism opens in 1994, France was negotiating the sale of frigates to Saudi Arabia to feed a hidden financing system in Edouard's political campaign. Balladour. This case would later be one of the biggest corruption scandals of the Vth Republic, the "Karachi case".

Q: After Louisa's case, there have been other deaths in Islamic exorcisms. Can you tell how many cases of this type have occurred?

It's hard to calculate. Above all, there are allusions to the processes that have taken place and are talked about in the media. In Belgium there were some cases at the beginning of this century. Young women raped and burned died after long exorcisms. There have been more cases in Algeria, where exorcism clinics have become a real business to the point that the government there has considered banning the practice, although after raising it it quickly abandoned the idea.

Q: Why hasn't the seven years in prison imposed on the imam responsible for Louisa's death served as an example to French society? Why has it not served to discourage these practices?

Because the majority of the French Muslim authorities are corrupt and the system of notables maintained by the French government demoralizes all the goodwill of Muslims who would like to change things. Virtually all of the Muslim notables who were called to testify at Louisa's trial remain in office. They have reigned for some thirty years over the religious affairs of the country with the complicity of successive governments content to have docile interlocutors to approve their religious reforms.

Q: Almost 30 years have passed since Louisa's death, and now there is a whole debate in France about reinforcing secularism. What do you think of this debate?

This debate is sterile. First, because it has been placed on a political agenda that does not fool French journalists. Emmanuel Macron was elected from the left in 2017 and has chosen to embrace the obsessions of the right to the delight of his electorate in 2022. Islam is part of those obsessions.

That there is a problem with religious radicalism, that is evident, but we must stop taking the French for fools. That Macron wants to present himself as a defender of secularism and republican values? So leaving the friendly deal with Saudi Arabia would be a good first step. There, "witches" are still beheaded. It is a country that dismembers journalists and reduces women to the status of minors. For the rest, French secularism would be better if its spirit were respected, which consists in the fact that the State does not interfere in the internal affairs of cults.

Q: What is it symptomatic of that in France today there are dozens of places where you can have access to this “prophetic medicine”?

There are several aspects to this. It has become an activity as flourishing as it is illegal. Many young people have been able to believe or see in this medicine an exit door in their lives. Others find a space that corresponds with their faith. There are also those who think that they will be better believers by practicing it.

But what is certain is the existence of the phenomenon of distrust of taking care of everything with conventional medicine, the need to return to natural care; the new aspirations to spirituality lead to this type of practice, in the same way that atheist corporate executives go to the bottom of the jungle in Brazil or to a vacation camp to indulge in shamanism. All this is what you have to understand.

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