[shiaben]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-...d-for-sorcery/

(CBS/AP) RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi authorities have executed a woman convicted of practicing magic and sorcery.
The Saudi Interior Ministry says in a statement the execution took place Monday, but gave no details on the woman's crime.

The London-based al-Hayat daily, however, quoted Abdullah al-Mohsen, chief of the religious police who arrested the woman, as saying she had tricked people into thinking she could treat illnesses, charging them $779 per session.

The paper said a female investigator followed up, and the woman was arrested in April 2009, and later convicted in a Saudi court.

It did not give the woman's name, but said she was in her 60s.

The execution brings the total to 76 this year in Saudi Arabia, according to an Associated Press count. At least three have been women.

Her case wasn't the first death penalty for practicing witchcraft. The kingdom follows a strict version of Islamic law that bans sorcery. Though dozens of people are arrested each year for practicing magic, the last known execution before 2011 was of an Egyptian pharmacist convicted in 2007.

Sorcery in Saudi Arabia also made headlines when Lebanese TV psychic Ali Sibat was arrested by Saudi religious police in May 2008 when he made a religious pilgrimage in the country. He sentenced to execution by beheading in Nov. 2009 for similar charges, but reports say he has yet to be executed.

As bizarre as these executions are for something this petty. What I don't understand is why are none-Arabian nationals executed so easily in this country? They mentioned an Egyptian man in this article as well as a Lebanese one on trial

[finishingmove]

what is this new devilry?

[peribsen]

Surely Saudis should be aware that witches are meant to be put alight, not beheaded?



Lord, does the world change... wonder if the surgeon general ever saw this...

http://youtu.be/86lYG1V2-n4

[Sham Kay]

About 500 years off the mark with this.

[peribsen]

Originally Posted by Shambritfan

About 500 years off the mark with this.

2011-1692 = 319 years, scarcely some 10 generations. We are not as far from backwardness as we would like to think.

(Probably you were answering the OP, not the Salem witch trials I brought up, but my remark applies both ways).

[Sunset of Age]

That's the beauty of 'religion' - or rather, PTB taking advantage of a subdued, powerless, discriminated community - for you.

[Sham Kay]

Originally Posted by peribsen

2011-1692 = 319 years, scarcely some 10 generations. We are not as far from backwardness as we would like to think.

(Probably you were answering the OP, not the Salem witch trials I brought up, but my remark applies both ways).

True, not that long ago at all. It's just the amount technology and equality has increased and Religious beliefs and prejudices have gone the other way over such a small space of time, even 50 years feels like a long time ago nowadays. 300 years ago is more ancient than it has ever been in the past, if that makes sense.

[peribsen]

Originally Posted by Shambritfan

.. even 50 years feels like a long time ago nowadays. 300 years ago is more ancient than it has ever been in the past, if that makes sense.

Yes it does make sense, it would seem like history has turned on the backburner, the pace at which the world changes is sometimes unsettling.

(Although, for the record, we should keep in mind that most generations have felt that the world they knew was falling apart, sometimes even more bluntly than we feel today.. just imagine living in Rome in the 400s, St Petersburgh 1916, Vienna 1914, and a long etc).

[Topspindoctor]

Lol. Yet another example of how religion is cancer of the human society. I dream of a world free of this nonsense, with religious fanatics safely locked away in mental asylums, instead of them deciding lives and deaths of innocent people. Religion disgusts me more and more every day and the political correct bullshit we get fed every day that we have to "tolerate" it.

[@Sweet Cleopatra]

They have people that walk in streets to order others stop hearing music, or preventing women from showing their faces and their hair!!

[Sham Kay]

Religion and law are best kept separate. Not that I'm saying everything the Western World does is absolutely correct, not at all, but here they're spot on. There are still many parts of Asia that are slowly catching up, but they're still at the stage where Religion maintains a defiant stranglehold, creating a barrier and slowing down the inevitable development.

Normally other cultures and ways of life are easy to accept and it is true that the Western World shouldn't impose their way of life on the rest of the world, as there is no 'correct' way to live. But sorcery hm.. the crime here is at most fraud.

[Topspindoctor]

Originally Posted by Shambritfan

Normally other cultures and ways of life are easy to accept and it is true that the Western World shouldn't impose their way of life on the rest of the world, as there is no 'correct' way to live. But sorcery hm.. the crime here is at most fraud.

I totally agree. But how about "the rest of the world" not imposing their primitive customs on the Western World when they arrive there by boats and live on taxpayers' money, while at the same time being a major source of crime? Maybe they should stay in their countries if they are want to worship their non existent gods and prophets

[tripwires]

Originally Posted by Shambritfan

Religion and law are best kept separate. Not that I'm saying everything the Western World does is absolutely correct, not at all, but here they're spot on. There are still many parts of Asia that are slowly catching up, but they're still at the stage where Religion maintains a defiant stranglehold, creating a barrier and slowing down the inevitable development.

Normally other cultures and ways of life are easy to accept and it is true that the Western World shouldn't impose their way of life on the rest of the world, as there is no 'correct' way to live. But sorcery hm.. the crime here is at most fraud.

Which parts of Asia did you have in mind?

Originally Posted by Topspindoctor

I totally agree. But how about "the rest of the world" not imposing their primitive customs on the Western World when they arrive there by boats and live on taxpayers' money, while at the same time being a major source of crime? Maybe they should stay in their countries if they are want to worship their non existent gods and prophets

Your xenophobia is out of control.

[Topspindoctor]

Originally Posted by tripwires

Your xenophobia is out of control.

Or maybe I am one of the few who's not brainwashed by political correctness and doesn't want the minorities screaming for their religious rights when they are living on that country's generosity... I am not intolerant , I just don't want primitive religions trying to make their mark in a free and democratic country. If they want to worship some magician and some pedophile prophet, they should stay where they are and not come to a country where people enjoy actual freedom and where women have actual rights and don't have to wear towels around their head or risk being murdererd.

[acionescu]

So, I suppose that executing people for murders are so much more justifiable, no?

At least the religion is not involved