Saudi Arabia to behead man guilty of witchcraft.

[Mr.Canada]

He was arrested by religious police while on pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in 2008 and convicted of sorcery.

There has been no official confirmation from Saudi Arabia, where executions are often carried out with little warning.

Amnesty International said Mr Sabat seemed to have been convicted for "exercising of his right to freedom of expression".

Human rights groups have accused the Saudis of "sanctioning a literal witch hunt by the religious police".

An Egyptian working as a pharmacist in Saudi Arabia was executed in 2007 after having been found guilty of using sorcery to try to separate a married couple.

There is no legal definition of witchcraft in Saudi Arabia, but horoscopes and fortune telling are condemned as un-Islamic.

Source

Witchcraft? Sorcery? Isn't this 2010? This is Saudi Arabia 2010. Public beheading s for "witchcraft" a crime for which their is no official definition so anything that goes against Islam is considered witchcraft.

Oh, this is also the same country that forces women to wear a full length Burka whenever she goes out into public for any reason. Mandated by law and punishable by death if disobeyed. Nice bunch of guys. Sounds like an open and just society to me, the kind that the left of this country would like to defend.

If this place doesn't qualify as a backward nation, no nation does.

Also in Dubai of the U.A.E. a man was jailed for years because he had Celebrex in his suitcase, that's right.

What a surprise another Islamic nation with bizzare laws.

Religious police? Sounds like a bad movie but it's true. These guys can arrest you at will, make up some story and you'll be found guilty and beheaded in public with little warning. Sounds like a lovely place.

[Michael Hardner]

What a surprise another Islamic nation with bizzare laws.

Also, an ally, an Arab nation, a desert nation, a dictatorship, a monarchy, a wealthy nation.

You seem to see religion first whenever anything bad happens.

If you were objectively investigating witchcraft persecution instead of just looking for another 'gotcha' against Islam, you would have found this:

Guardian UK Article

As Congolese society has disintegrated, undermined by the country's rulers and ravaged by Aids and poverty, the family has collapsed. Children have been the main victims, often accused of witchcraft when families suffer misfortunes.

'Thirty years ago this did not exist,' says Remy Mafu, the director of the Rejeer project for street children. 'Now it's a huge problem and difficult to know how to deal with it.'

He estimates there are between 25,000 and 50,000 children on the streets of Kinshasa, a city of seven million. Many - if not most - have been accused of witchcraft and rejected by their families. The roots lie in a distorted development of African culture. Witchcraft does not mean in Africa what it means in Europe. Traditionally in Congo, every community had mediums who communicated with spirits in the other world. These were usually older people, revered and respected. The spirits they communed with or were possessed by were usually neither good nor bad, simply powerful.

Congo is 80% Christian BTW.

[Mr.Canada]

I find it funny that the same people who wish to oppress women by not oppossing the use of the burka in turn support a nation where people are publicly beheaded for sorcery. Burka in Saudi Arabia is mandatory in public punishable by beheading, the same nation that publicly beheads people for so called witchcraft.

By opossing the ban on the burka these people are giving credibility to nations like Saudi Arabia. Basically agreeing with their way of life and supporting Islamists in this country to behave similarly.

I find this new trend troubling. Women have suffered a great deal throughout history and have made great strides in this country. Women's rights are for every woman in Canada including the Islamic ones. I find it appalling that some people here don't wish to extend these benfits to all women of every race, nationality and religion residing within Canada.

Muslim women are as much a Canadian as anybody and they deserve to not be opressed by their husbands or fathers. It wouldn't be tolerated if the victim was a European woman and it shouldn't be ok because it happens to be a Muslim woman.

Shame!

[Michael Hardner]

I find it funny that the same people who wish to oppress women by not oppossing the use of the burka in turn support a nation where people are publicly beheaded for sorcery.

Who here supports Saudi Arabia ?

You stepped off the ledge with the OP effectively pinning the blame for their backwards ways on their religion. I pointed that out in the last post, and now you're simply moving on... ignoring your error.

You do this over and over again. What you should be doing is admitting your mistakes, and incorporating suggested improvements into your posting habits. Then you would become a better poster, and people might take your posts more seriously.

All of this is constructive criticism, meant to help BTW. But we've been saying this for awhile now and nothing seems to change with you.

[Mr.Canada]

My first posts of this thread say it all. People of this board are in support of women being forced by their families to wear the burka or become a victim of an honor killing or some other form of severe punishment.

In Saudi Arabia women are also forced to wear the burka or face beheading. In Saudi Arabia they behead people whom are arressted by the "religious police" for witchcraft.

Supporting one supports the other.

Edited April 2, 2010 by Mr.Canada

[Guest American Woman]

Also, an ally, an Arab nation, a desert nation, a dictatorship, a monarchy, a wealthy nation.

You seem to see religion first whenever anything bad happens.

Since he was arrested by "religious police," seems logical that one would see "religion first," before any of the other things you mentioned, in this case.

[Michael Hardner]

Since he was arrested by "religious police," seems logical that one would see "religion first," before any of the other things you mentioned, in this case.

Ok.

[BCMan]

That’s a wild conclusion to make from your criticism. Just because one doesn’t agree with you doesn’t necessarily mean he is against you.

P1: Do you like hockey?

P2: No, I don’t like hockey, I play baseball.

P1: Huh? you are against me.

My first posts of this thread say it all. People of this board are in support of women being forced by their families to wear the burka or become a victim of an honor killing or some other form of severe punishment.

In Saudi Arabia women are also forced to wear the burka or face beheading. In Saudi Arabia they behead people whom are arressted by the "religious police" for witchcraft.

Supporting one supports the other.

[Mr.Canada]

That’s a wild conclusion to make from your criticism. Just because one doesn’t agree with you doesn’t necessarily mean he is against you.

P1: Do you like hockey?

P2: No, I don’t like hockey, I play baseball.

P1: Huh? you are against me.

That's the thing. They are refusing to be against the death penalty for witch craft. Therefore they must be for it and support these theocracies and all their practices. If they don't why not just say so? Why waste our time?

I'm honest with my opinions right away, others like to play games and dance around issues.

[Michael Hardner]

I'm honest with my opinions right away, ...

I wouldn't say so. You appear to go after all things Muslim first and foremost, and when asked about it you don't answer, instead coming to a whole set of false conclusions about those who don't agree with you.

Not exactly honest and open behavior, as far as I can see.

[Mr.Canada]

I wouldn't say so. You appear to go after all things Muslim first and foremost, and when asked about it you don't answer, instead coming to a whole set of false conclusions about those who don't agree with you.

Not exactly honest and open behavior, as far as I can see.

I support the ban on the Burka because it oppresses Muslim women and makes them prisoners. Women are forced to wear it by family in westernized countries and forced by law in many Islamic ones. The same countries who have "religious police" to arrest people who do anything that is percieved to be against Islam. Most of the sentences are death by beheading or hanging in public.

I don't see how I'm not being open here however you have posted what? 10 posts on these topics and have yet to condone or comdemn these practices and have instead attacked me, the poster. Ad hominem much?

Edited April 3, 2010 by Mr.Canada

[Michael Hardner]

I don't see how I'm not being open here however you have posted what? 10 posts on these topics and have yet to condone or comdemn these practices and have instead attacked me, the poster. Ad hominem much?

I'm attacking your posts, not you. You asked me to condemn those practices on another thread (I'm not sure why my opinion on that is required, but...) and I did.

You're not being open because you're letting Christian nations off the hook - blaming everything on Islamic nations and again refusing to see your own bias.

[Mr.Canada]

I'm attacking your posts, not you. You asked me to condemn those practices on another thread (I'm not sure why my opinion on that is required, but...) and I did.

You're not being open because you're letting Christian nations off the hook - blaming everything on Islamic nations and again refusing to see your own bias.

Michael, now whos twisting words here. As far as I know there aren't many if any Christian based theocracies in today's world where Christian priests make the laws and oversee punishment. If their are I'd like to know which countries do this and I'd certainly be against them if they did something as awful as execute people for free thought and expression.

[Michael Hardner]

Michael, now whos twisting words here. As far as I know there aren't many if any Christian based theocracies in today's world where Christian priests make the laws and oversee punishment. If their are I'd like to know which countries do this and I'd certainly be against them if they did something as awful as execute people for free thought and expression.

Ok, well that is at least an argument. By setting the definition of these misdeeds as those being declared by religious police, you have attuned your argument and indeed tied the backwards-ness of the government policy to religious police that they empower.

That, I can accept. However, you have also implicitly said that actions of the mob aren't considered attributed to the religion of those involved - do you see that ? I agree with your take on it, but if you try to attribute mob violence to a particular religion in future arguments, you'll have contradicted yourself.

[jbg]

Further progress against witchcraft, and now sorcery as well (link).

[monty16]

The problem isn't witchcraft, it's just relgion rearing it's ugly head again. It wasn't the witch that caused harm to others. But in truthfulness, given a chance the witch probably could have. It's a sky fairy belief again.

Witchcraft is no more whacko than belief in sky fairies or believing that the earth is young. Neither witchcraft, christianity, or Islam are guilty of any crimes in themselves. It's the crimes that they all lead people to commit that's the problem. These days, especially christianity with the slaughter of a million or more Iraqi people on false and trumped up charges.