It appears a number of areas in Indonesia are suffering from an outbreak of demonic possession. So says the Indonesian Ulema Council who place the blame for the outbreak on lack of good religious indoct….ehm, education in schools.

This month alone it is claimed that incidences of possession have occurred in Yogyakarta (6/3), Banjarmasin (20/3), Surabaya (20-22/3), Bogor (21/3), and Malang (22/3), mainly among high school students. That which took place in Malang though affected workers at a cigarette factory.

Abdurrahman Navis, a religious scholar, says to the naysayers and sceptics and other people who might be inclined to laugh at him until he got angry that the possessions must be real or else they wouldn’t be occuring in such a widespread fashion.

He explained how such other worldly events can take place:

Spirits/demons like dirty and eerie places but they resemble humans in that if they are disturbed they will disturb people in return. So just maybe there are dark places near schools which they are annoyed by.
(Jin itu suka dengan tempat-tempat yang kotor dan menyeramkan, tapi mereka juga seperti manusia yakni jika diganggu, maka mereka akan mengganggu juga. Jadi, mungkin saja ada tempat menyeramkan di dekat sekolah yang diusik.)

What will stop the jin in their devilish tracks though, according to Navis, is people who are religiously observant and pray often, – i.e. people who buckle down and accept the authority of dinosaurs like himself.

Abu Khoir [a Javanese religious teacher] taught that the way to overcome demons is to recite the verses of the koran which detail the powers of God.
(Abu Khoir pernah diajari jin tentang cara menangkal jin dengan membaca ayat kursi.)

However he offered hope for those afflicted. Headmasters, business owners, and parents could take the possessed to qualified religious teachers, he said, drumming up some business.