Hexdreams strange little blog

You don’t have to be Muslim to be an religious extremist

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Your child is very sick, but instead of taking her to the doctor, and despite the signs that it is serious, you invite your prayer group over to pray for her. As a result of your neglect, your child dies, and you do not consider yourself a religious extremist… Does anyone else see a problem here?

It seems I am not alone in this thought, and it is nice to know that sanity sometimes does prevail, even in the justice system.

On Friday, May 22, a jury  convicted Leilani Neumann, 41, of Wisconsin, of second-degree reckless homicide for the death of her 11 year old daughter Madeline Kara Neumann. Obviously she will appeal the conviction. Dale Neumann, the girls father will stand trial in July for the same same charge.

Madeline Kara Neumann

Madeline, died on March 23, 2008,  surrounded by her parents prayer group and business partners. They only called for medical assistance after she stopped breathing.

Now before you think that this is something that was difficult to treat , remember that basic medical care (insulin and fluids) would have saved her life. She died from untreated diabetes.

Madeline’s Aunt, Ariel Gomez pleaded for assistance. According to the 911 call:

“My sister in law is, her daughter’s severely, severely sick and she believes her daughter is in a coma. And, she’s very religious so she’s refusing to take (Neumann) to the hospital, so I was hoping maybe somebody could go over there.”

According to District Attorney Jill Falstad:

“Religious extremism can be dangerous. In this case, it was fatal. Basic medical care would have saved Kara’s life — fluids and insulin. There was plenty of time to save Kara’s life.”

Defence lawyer Gene Linehan responded :

“…Neumann didn’t realize her daughter was so ill and did all she could do to help, in line with the family’s belief in faith-healing.

…Neumann was a devout Christian who prays about everything and took good care of her four children.

Religious extremism is a Muslim terrorist. They are saying these parents were so far off the scale that they murdered their child. The woman did everything she could to help her. That is the injustice in this case.”

Madelaine’s father, Brian Gordon , was quoted as saying:

“We definitely are not terrorists. We are Bible-believing, God-believing, Holy Ghost-filled people who want to do right and be right.”

Way to go Bush administration… You have successfully brainwashed your constituency into thinking that you have to be Muslim to be a religious extremist.

I hope you are proud of yourselves.

Read the original story here, with commentary here.

*EDIT: The title is not meant to imply that all Muslims are terrorists or extremists.