Regarding the host of a TV show (and father of 5) who was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for "practicing sorcery" on his show--which is produced and aired in Lebanon.
According to Arab News, an English language Saudi daily newspaper, after the most recent verdict was issued, the judges in Medina issued a statement expressing that Sibat deserved to be executed for having continually practiced black magic on his show, adding that this sentence would deter others from practicing sorcery.
49 comments
Since when can a country arrest, try and condemn the citizen of another country for a "crime" not even committed in their country?
I'm anti-war, but I would sooo look the other way if anyone ever started bombing that country.
"According to his lawyer, Sibat, who is 48 and has five children, would predict the future on his show and give out advice to his audience."
The real question, as I see it, is: were his predictions accurate? If so, then he should be able to claim prophet status. If not, then he's a false prophet, and the Bible and the Koran are clear as to his punishment.
Sometimes I think it would be a good idea to submit all the "prophets" we have here in the US to the test...
Fuck the Saudis and their pedophile prophet, there I said it. Seriously, Pat Robertson and his ilk are amusingly dumb and everything, but they would never go this far.
If he'd been screwing nine year old girls like Mohommed did, and decreeing in his predictions for the furture that women should be oppressed even further, they'd be hailing him as a prophet and holding parades for him.
@aboveathletics
That's because they CAN'T right now. In spite of the massive lobbying done by the religious right to pervert progress made in cases such as gay marriage or abortion, Pat and his ilk do not have a majority in Congress to drive through the constitutional changes necessary to transform the US into the same backwards theocracy as Saudi Arabia, which pretty much had a head-start by being theocratic to begin with.
However, I am positive that if they ever got their way we'd be in a similar situation in the US too- you ever read "A Handmaid's Tale"? Scary stuff.
@John the Atheist: Never lose sight of the fact that the people we mock on this site are a small but vocal minority. Most people with religious beliefs are pretty reasonable.
But yes, this is an example of dogma being taken too far. The guy wasn't even a citizen of Saudi Arabia, so this should (hopefully) raise a nice shit storm that will (with luck) result in the guy getting released since Saudi Arabia is imposing its laws on another country's citizen over something that didn't actually occur in the country.
@#1139925
"...Saudi Arabia is imposing its laws on another country's citizen over something that didn't actually occur in the country. "
Ah, but see, god's laws are more powerful than the laws of mere mortals. It worked for the Catholics in the Dark Ages.
Yes, sorcery is serious stuff in Saudi Arabia, marrying pre pubescent girls to crooked, drooling, aged paedo - fossils? Not so serious .
@ Dr Razark. Good observation. Yep. they think allah supercedes all else. Individual laws of other countries are a non issue. A current issue in one of the most modern muslim states...is the punishment of two people who kissed (evidently, on the cheek) in public who were not married. Xian fundies are ridiculous. Muslim fundies take the cake. They are worse. And yes, what we are writing about it is enough for all of us to be whipped (at least) for saying it if they bring you up for it.
It's not sorcery... the proper term is "bullshit". And if you fall for it then you're the gullible idiot that should be hit with a cluebat, not the "sorcerer". Far out, this is like talking to a five-year-old.
Don't forget, people - Saudi Arabia are good guys, they're America's allies ! U-S-A ! U-S-A !
We should sentence the whole country to nuclear death for being an autoritarian theocracy practising pedophilia. Along with Vatican City. Well, I don't really think we should , but it sure is tempting.
@Murdin
I can't possibly dream of anything tempting about bringing utter ruin to our own habitat over comparatively minor societal issues like this.
Plus, there's thousands of innocents lost for every asshole who would end up getting quoted here.
Now, a more workable method, hit the offenders with a cluebat.
@moose,
yeah, I've only been awake about 30 minutes, and I've already done at least 5 things that would have me arrested by the Saudi religious police. Of course I'm a female who lives alone, earns my own income and shows my face in public, that should have had me stoned years ago!
Oh and read the "Princess" books by Jean Sasson & Princess Sultana. The Saudi Royal Family breaks their own laws on an hourly basis, including the law against fortune telling.
That woman shows a hell of a lot more restraint than I would.
This is why you can't ever have a union of church & state. Because inevitably people get punished over things that are not real, nor even demonstrable.
@Canadia : well, all the things that you've listed are the reasons why I said we really shouldn't envision it for real, as tempting as it may appear sometimes. That, plus I don't think that killing everyone who disagrees with your views is a very ethical way to solve problems.
Still... sometimes, you just wish the world were that simple. The idea of being able to resolve moral conflicts through superior firepower is very stupid, very dangerous if taken too seriously, but also very, very cathartic.
Short story even shorter, my message wasn't mean to be taken seriously.
*sigh* Saudi Arabia imposes its fundie will on yet another tourist on pilgrimage.
Sooner or later, they're going to try the same crap on an American muslim. Serious shit will go down that day...
And what sorcery was this, I wonder? Did it involve an ancient magick spellchart known as the "Periodic Table" to perform the magick of "chemistry"?
Seriously, what next? A fucking fatwa on the head of Bill Nye the Science Guy?
It's funny. Fundies of this calibre don't believe in chemical processes such as carbon dating, and don't believe in the science behind it.
But, the same science is used in fertiliser and the making of fertiliser bombs, so you'd expect them to believe that sort of bomb wouldn't work. Yet they KNOW they do.
My point is that these sort of people are blind to the truth, even when they can see it, even when they're using it for a purpose.
Know what I mean now?
Truly, truly brainwashed.
#1140017
@#1139925
Religious people? reasonable? yeah, no.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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