COMMENTARY | How does one prove one is a witch in Saudi Arabia? According to Foreign Policy Magazine, proving someone is a witch usually involves a sting operation conducted by the religious police. Then, after a drumhead trial, the witch is executed.
One is apparently judged a witch for the usual reasons — casting spells, using potions, and acting kind of eccentric. There is no strict legal definition of witchcraft in Saudi Arabia. This is left up to the discretion of Islamic judges. The “trials” do not have the features of such things as is rules of evidence, right to counsel, or the right to cross-examine. Execution is swift and involves the use of a sword through the neck of the convicted witch.
Killing people accused of witchcraft has long gone out of style in the West. Indeed, “witch hunt” has become a term with the odor of paranoia and persecution. While witches are no longer burned at the stake, they are held up to ridicule, forced to deny the charge on TV, and are not elected to the United States Senate. Christine O’Donnell can comfort herself with the knowledge that she will get to keep her head.
The idea of witch hunting in the 21st century is more than a little bit nauseating. It is only the fact that Saudi Arabia has a lot of oil underneath its sands that the practice is tolerated at all. Countries that oppress their citizens with less vigor have been subjected to economic sanctions and worse. Sadly, as someone once said, while the Kingdom of Heaven runs on righteousness, the kingdoms of the Earth run on oil.
Of course tolerance of Saudi barbarity could change if alternate sources of energy could be found. Some campaign for wind power, solar power, or even nuclear power as viable and more environmentally correct options. Others maintain that there is plenty of oil offshore of North America and in shale formations that could be used to replace Saudi crude.
The fascinating thing is that both are right. An energy policy that reduces dependence on barbaric countries like Saudi Arabia would not only be righteous, but healthier economically in the long run. Trying and doing everything, letting the market decide which methods are more viable, should not only make the West energy independent, but cut off the money from people who cut the heads off of people for — in essence — being weird.
Source: How Do You Prove Someone’s a Witch in Saudi Arabia? Uri Friedman, Foreign Policy, Dec 13, 2011