How can anyone be burned at the stake beheaded for “casting a spell” in the 21st Century? But that is what has just happened in Saudi Arabia, as a “sorcerer” was executed. From the story:
According to the officer’s account Abdul Hamid agreed to carry out the curse in exchange for 6,000 Saudi Arabian riyals (approximately £1,000). He was beaten after his arrest and thought to have been forced to admit to acts of sorcery. In a secret trial, where he was not allowed legal representation, he was sentenced to death by the General Court in Medina in March 2007.
Well, at least he got a fair chance of defending himself. Did these killers think that if he could really cast spells, they would not have been turned into turnips? There should be a human rights outcry.
November 1st, 2011 | 11:21 am
Give credit where credits due, to secular humanism and the enlightenment. May some of it penetrate Saudi Arabia sometime soon.
November 1st, 2011 | 12:16 pm
I agree with Boonton. Show me in the Bible where it says “there’s no such thing as witches and casting spells”.
November 1st, 2011 | 1:43 pm
Barbarians behaving barbarically? I’m having a heart attack from not surprise.
November 2nd, 2011 | 12:27 am
That’s a lot of money for one curse! Who knew that sorcery could be so lucrative? Of course, the consequences appear rather dire.
November 2nd, 2011 | 5:30 am
It is, perhaps, chastening to recall that it was only the new Penal Code, proposed by Louis Michel le Peletier, Marquis de Saint-Fargeau (promulgated September 26 – October 6, 1791) that abolished, without a debate, the crimes of blasphemy, sodomy and witchcraft [le blasphème, la sodomie et la sorcellerie]
November 2nd, 2011 | 6:17 am
[...] U.S. ally Saudi Arabia beheads witches. [...]
November 2nd, 2011 | 5:09 pm
The punishment is certainly barbaric, and no doubt there was little in the way of due process followed, but why shouldn’t sorcery — or at least certain forms of sorcery — be against the law?
It can certainly be a real problem, even if you don’t think that it actually “works”. For a good example, in Uganda right now, there’s an ongoing wave of child sacrifices by witch doctors. Now of course murdering children is already illegal there, but it might be a good idea to suppress witch doctors in general in order to reduce their ability to drum up illicit business.
November 2nd, 2011 | 5:23 pm
“Did these killers think that if he could really cast spells, they would not have been turned into turnips?”
Apparently so–that’s why the secret trial was needed.
Seriously, yes, there should be a human rights outcry.
November 3rd, 2011 | 9:29 am
I remember having a discussion on this very topic not long ago. Some one wondered why we should interfere in the rights of Saudis to kill sorcerers (the “Who Are We to Judge?” argument). Others decided the standard should be the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The State Department publishes a lengthy and detailed Human Rights report annually. The Saudi report always includes persecution of “sorcerers”, usually in the wake of execution(s) whenever such an event occurred during the year (it is sadly not a rare thing). Other similar persecutions—of Shia, Christian, anyone different—-are also noted. So are such things as the five year old slaves purchased to serve as jockeys in camel races.
November 3rd, 2011 | 12:54 pm
Peg, I’m hardly one of the “Who are we to judge” crowd. I don’t hesitate to judge the Saudis as pestilent savages. But the _mission civilatrice_ failed over a century ago. There is no reason to believe it would succeed now. We must simply leave the barbarians to their unspeakable folkways. To truly change their culture would take a brutality that no Western nation would stomach. The logical consequence is to leave them alone as long as they do not interfere with our interests and to crush them like a grape (then get the heck out rather than stay and try to civilize them) if they do.
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