Did Witches Deserve Burnings, Blooding and Banishment?

History is replete with reports of witches’ trials and torture. They were actually executed like animals without due process of law. They were hauled to the stakes on unsubstantiated and unverified accusations and accounts of witnesses. They were also slashed for blooding and cruelly left alone to die like hogs. They were also stoned to death.

Just when we have become complacent that these terrifying executions are long gone, thousands of people are persecuted on mere suspicion of cavorting with the demon. Unless the incidents are leaked to the press, the world will never know about these.

In Saudi Arabia, Fawzah Falih is sentenced to die by beheading. She is illiterate but was forced to sign a confession (using her thumbmark) she could not read. According to her, the content of the confession was not read to her nor is she fully aware of the extent of the charges. She was also beaten and was hospitalized at one time for serious injuries.

Her family got a lawyer but the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice or CPVPV denied the lawyer a chance to talk to her. She is presently languishing in Quraiyat, a prison north of Saudi Arabia and since her detention in April 2006, has not seen her loved ones.

Her crime? Witchcraft. She was accused of predicting the return of a divorced husband, casting a spell on a man that made him impotent, slaughtering animals and communing with supernatural spirits or jinns. The “witnesses” showed no other proof, only their statements.

It’s a shame that the treatment of Falih and other persons executed for witchcraft run counter to the Saudi Arabia advocacy against the poor treatment of Muslims world-wide.

At this point, only King Abdullah bin Abd al-’Aziz Al Saud can save Falih. I ask you again, did witches deserve burnings, blooding and banishment? Does Falih deserve to be beheaded?

Photo Credits: fasterthantheworld.com

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