Ethics

Identifying Sorcerors, Saudi-Style

By Ed Brayton

Howard Friedman figures out how to spot a sorceror, Saudi-style:

Today's Saudi Gazette reports on the special efforts of the government's Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in combating sorcery, which is banned by Islam. Apparently there is a special branch of the Commission devoted to the topic. An arrest was recently made in Al-Ahsa where sorcery had become "the talk of the town." Sheikh Adel Faqih, head of the Commission's anti-sorcery branch, says that religious pilgrims to Saudi Arabia are misled by sorcerers who make use of Qur'anic terms. According to the report, Faqih "explained that a sorcerer can be identified when he asks for the name of a patient and for the name of the patient's mother or if he is seeking to buy an animal with certain features. He can also be identified if he asks for a sheep to be killed without mentioning Allah's name and asks to stain the body with the animal's blood or if he asks for similar unusual things."

Egads. Whenever I ask for a sheep to be killed, I fail to mention Allah's name. I wonder if I weigh as much as a duck?

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on March 21, 2009 (boomark / email).