Murder Throws Spotlight on Rise in Satanism
By David Crossland
BOCHUM, Germany (Reuters) - A bizarre murder by two Devil worshippers has highlighted a rise in Satanism in Germany, where one expert estimates there are up to 7,000 followers, many of them also adhering to Nazi ideology.
Daniel and Manuela Ruda, a married couple who were being sentenced on Thursday, confessed to killing a friend with a hammer and 66 knife stabs last July, saying the Devil had ordered them to kill.
Both have severe psychological disorders, psychiatrists told the court in the western town of Bochum.
Accounts of Manuela's bloodsucking habit and the ritual in which she and her husband killed their victim -- carving a pentagram, the sign of the devil, into his chest and leaving a scalpel protruding from his stomach -- have fascinated Germany and focused attention on Satanism.
``If you study Internet chat pages you can see that the Rudas enjoy cult status with kids,'' said Ingolf Christiansen, author of a book on Satanism and commissioner for ideological issues at the Lutheran Protestant Church in Hanover.
Christiansen said Satanism was more widespread in Britain and the United States than in Germany, where he estimates there are between 3,000 and 7,000 followers.
``That's a conservative estimate. I see a rising tendency. The Internet is helping to spread it. It is driven by increasing brutalization in all areas and a corresponding loss of values.''
Satanism -- which has no official structure and means different things to different people -- typically involves worshipping Satan, the Devil, and a travesty of Christian practices and symbols.
Many adherents see it as a form of social Darwinism rejecting religious norms and promoting the right of the strong to dominate the weak.
Its practice often involves ceremonies with sex and sacrifice to tap dark primal forces. Most Satanists reject moral codes, saying an individual must determine what is good or bad.
Modern forms of Satanism draw on a host of traditions, from ancient Egyptian mythology to Celtic cults and Haitian Voodoo.
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