She’s a witch! That may be a little comical what with Life of Brian and the weight of ducks and all, but the story linked below is nothing of the sort. Our staunch oily allies in Saudi Arabia literally put a woman to death for being a sorceress:
(SacBee) — 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 $800 per session.
I’m all for giving faith healing grifters a hard time, up to an including doing hard time when and if they cause harm to trusting victims. But this is sick. Since the details of this case are a state secret we can only speculate that this particular lady did not practice state approved magic and sorcery, aka Islam.
And Rick Perry asks, “You can still do that?”
Wrong movie – that was in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Life of Brian had the bit with the stoning for blasphemy, though, making both references sadly relevant.
Does Islamic doctrine have a place for “faith healing” and other such scams like we see in the Christian world? If not, then your reference to “state approved sorcery” is a false equivalence. Is there a body of “state approved” Islamic magic for healing or anything else?
And if the alleged sorceress was put to death for pretending to heal people by magic and charging money, then she was put to death for fraud, not for sorcery (it’s only “sorcery” if it actually works); so your initial accusation is kinda off the mark.
None of this justifies any aspect of Saudi/Wahabbi “jujstice,” of course; but if we’re going to criticise something, we need to be clear and honest about what we’re criticising.
@ Raging Bee
Certainly. Islam is chock-a-block full of scams. Check out “God’s Terrorists” by Charles Allen, for a discussion on how islamists used (fake) isnads to steal property from their fellow believers. Join a library, read up on islam, it is full of these kinds of underhand tricks. Like any religion it is predicated by lies.
Look up the pile of steaming bullcrap that islam comes up with wrt medical science. Though it has played a historical role in promoting and developing real medicine in the past, the emphasis nowadays seems to be to prove that the bullshit in the koran and haddiths is scientific. (Read up about about “muslim” fetal development and the preservation of sperm for months/years in muslim women.)
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Sorcery in the koran: eg… sura 26:185 or surah 17:47 It is associated with unbelief and apostasy (in itself a capital offence). Hint- the faithful are immune through the grace of god.
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Can you, RB, differentiate between sorcery,magic and religion?
Re: Raging Bee @ #3
There really is ‘state approved’ sorcery in Saudi Arabia – the “Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” (aka the religious police) approves faith healers and sheiks, and performs occasional spot checks to make sure that they really do nothing else than mumble Koranic verses over patients.
And they really don’t have any choice – since the Koran mentions demonic possession and the possibility of exorcising demons by prayer, even just publicly doubting or denying the reality of demonic possession (or that such possession can cause illnesses) could be considered (and prosecuted as) blasphemy.
Then there’s a large ‘black market’ of not-sanctioned faith healing and wizardry of various description…the ‘evil eye’, charm bracelets, love potions, you name it. I’d assume the executed ‘witch’ was active in that field, and executed to set an example – and suppress the competition.
Maybe someone can convince John Edwards, Sylvia Browne and co. to go and share their gifts with the Saudi people?