Saudi man executed for 'witchcraft and sorcery'

[Grim Reaper]

Saudi man executed for 'witchcraft and sorcery'

A Saudi man has been beheaded on charges of sorcery and witchcraft, the state news agency SPA says.


The man, Muree bin Ali bin Issa al-Asiri, was found in possession of books and talismans, SPA said. He had also admitted adultery with two women, it said.

The execution took place in the southern Najran province, SPA reported.

Human rights groups have repeatedly condemned executions for witchcraft in Saudi Arabia.

Last year, there were reports of at least two people being executed for sorcery.

Mr Asiri was beheaded after his sentence was upheld by the country's highest courts, the Saudi news agency website said.

No details were given of what he was found guilty of beyond the charges of witchcraft and sorcery.

Amnesty International says the country does not formally classify sorcery as a capital offence.

But the BBC's Arab Affairs Editor, Sebastian Usher, says there is a very strong prohibition of some practices from the country's powerful conservative religious leaders.

Some, he explains, have repeatedly called for the strongest possible punishments against anyone suspected of sorcery - whether they are fortune tellers or faith healers.

In 2010, a Lebanese television presenter of a popular fortune-telling programme was arrested while on pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.

Though sentenced to death, after pressure from his government and human rights groups, he was freed by the Saudi Supreme Court, which that he had not harmed anyone.

More recent cases of death on charges of sorcery include that of a Saudi woman, executed for committing sorcery and witchcraft in December, in the northern province of Jawf, and that of a Sudanese man executed in September, despite calls led by Amnesty International for his release.

It's amazing how, in the year 2012, people can still be executed over wearing funny jewelry and reading weird books. And all because another group of people with their own brand of funny jewelry and weird books said so.

[rubato]

Its amazing how Christians killed people for the same for 2,000 years and now appear shocked that others are so much like them.

yrs,
rubato

[Jarlaxle]

It's amazing that Islam still needs to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 19th century.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Its amazing how Christians killed people for the same for 2,000 years and now appear shocked that others are so much like them.

yrs,
rubato

That's more like 1,950 years... sheesh, get it right!

[Rick]

Did they whack his head off with an ax or did they use a saw?

[rubato]

It's amazing that Islam still needs to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 19th century.

Well it took 2,000, I mean 1,950, years for Christians to reach the moral level Buddhism achieved 500 years before Christ, so perhaps we should be patient. I would also point out that Mohammed only lived 1,300 years ago so to evolve as quickly as Christians did they still have 650 years. Any sooner than that and they will be prodigies of moral development.

yrs,
rubato

[dales]

"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"

ALL

ALL

ALL

Romans 3:23

New International Version (NIV)


for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

[Lord Jim]

Its amazing how Christians killed people for the same for 2,000 years and now appear shocked that others are so much like them.

Hands up all those Christians here who killed people for witchcraft and sorcery for 2000 years...

[Rick]

Jimbob I stopped keeping count.

Like Abraham Lincoln before me I also kill vampires...

[MajGenl.Meade]

Well who hasn’t?



LJ – maybe we need a chart

3,000 BC onward Babylonians, Jews and Egyptians execute witches

350 BC onward: Roman executions of sorcerers and spell casters

ca. A.D. 40-45 (ca.) Christianity begins (in Antioch; Acts 11:26)

ca. A.D. 390 Roman witch persecutions end when Christianity is adopted as state religion

A.D. 794 Council of Frankfurt; declares belief in witchcraft to be a pagan superstition and imposes death penalty on those who kill alleged witches.

A.D. 1400 to A.D. 1700 beginnings and peak of the persecutions in Europe

A.D. 1700 to A.D. 2012 Isolated incidents in Europe (prior to 20th century) and continuation of persecutions in Africa, India, the Middle East, Asia and so on.

So I think really the Christians were pretty mean for about 300 years. The churches have largely spent the last 300 years adhering to the position the church espoused for the first 1,400 years of its existence.

Not that facts matter all that much

Meade

[Rick]

The Malleus Maleficarum because Inquisitive minds want to know.

[Lord Jim]

Not that facts matter all that much

Gen'l, for some folks, facts are like farts.....

Irritating when they first appear, but then quickly forgotten....

You can betcher boots we'll see that "2000 years of executing witches" canard re-posted again....

[rubato]

The point was more general; that Christianity has systematically murdered people for being non-Christian or sometimes just non-conforming Christians. As the years and seasons change the particular focus of their murders changed from Witches and Sorcerers to Jews, Waldensies, Huegenots, Gnostics, Cathars (who were the first successful genocide).

The examples and links have been presented before.

yrs,
rubato

[dales]

The point was more general; that Christianity every other belief system has systematically murdered people for being non-Christian not like themselves or sometimes just non-conforming Christians to themselves. As the years and seasons change the particular focus of their murders changed from Witches and Sorcerers to Jews, Waldensies, Huegenots, Gnostics, Cathars (who were the first successful genocide) peoples who were deemed a threat to their survival on planet Earth, belief systems aside.

The examples and links have been presented before [or perhaps not].

yrs,
rubato

[rubato]

There are some 'belief systems' which have not done so. Tibetan Buddhists, Jains, Western empiricists, Jews, and Quakers (to name only a few) have not engaged in systematic murder as Christians have a 2,000 year habit of. Cathars were slaughtered to the last person (about 250,000 souls) by Christians precisely because of their tolerance

A belief in the periodic table of the elements or Le Chatlier's Principle has not, to my knowledge, ever led any groups to murder people systematically as Christianity has done in staggering numbers. The periodic table and Le Chatlier have both reduced the amount of human suffering while Christians have generally increased it.

yrs,
rubato

[dales]

wrong

[MajGenl.Meade]

There are some 'belief systems' which have not done so. Tibetan Buddhists, Jains, Western empiricists, Jews, and Quakers (to name only a few) have not engaged in systematic murder as Christians have a 2,000 year habit of. Cathars were slaughtered to the last person (about 250,000 souls) by Christians precisely because of their tolerance

A belief in the periodic table of the elements or Le Chatlier's Principle has not, to my knowledge, ever led any groups to murder people systematically as Christianity has done in staggering numbers. The periodic table and Le Chatlier have both reduced the amount of human suffering while Christians have generally increased it.

yrs,
rubato

What is the sound of one man crapping? Why say 'Christians' when you could with more justice say 'Europeans' or 'Western society' and thus be more inclusive? (Actually to include Jews is laughable - have you forgotten the Old Testament?). And the issue is not one of belief in a particular scientific theory but non-belief in the existence of God.... atheists and pagans of one kind and another have a far more enviable record of slaughtering humanity than any amount of Christians can claim. True ignorance is based upon ignoring

Meade

[Lord Jim]

Quakers (to name only a few) have not engaged in systematic murder as Christians have

Gee, the last time I checked, the Quaker faith was a Christian religion....(there are apparently a few today who do not consider themselves Christians, but the vast majority do, and their history is certainly as Christian church)

As I've said, I'm certainly no expert on Christian theology... but every time rube posts on the subject , he makes me feel like I'm Karl Barth by comparison....

atheists and pagans of one kind and another have a far more enviable record of slaughtering humanity than any amount of Christians can claim.

As has been correctly pointed out a number of times, there were many more people slaughtered by those claiming to be Atheists in the 20th Century, than were slaughtered by those claiming to be Christians in the previous 19 centuries combined....

[Jarlaxle]

It's amazing that Islam still needs to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 19th century.

Well it took 2,000, I mean 1,950, years for Christians to reach the moral level Buddhism achieved 500 years before Christ, so perhaps we should be patient. I would also point out that Mohammed only lived 1,300 years ago so to evolve as quickly as Christians did they still have 650 years. Any sooner than that and they will be prodigies of moral development.

yrs,
rubato

Damn, you are a stupid shit.

[Sean]

As has been correctly pointed out a number of times, there were many more people slaughtered by those claiming to be Atheists in the 20th Century, than were slaughtered by those claiming to be Christians in the previous 19 centuries combined....

I'm going to assume that you're talking about Hitler and Stalin Jim. Can you provide a shred of evidence to show that they did what they did in the name of Atheism? If not, there is no basis for comparison.