That would be SO COOL! 
I think there is something in the Koran or a hadith that permits men to use henna.
A link to the wonders of the Islamic Religion with a note about the uses of henna.
I remember the 1400’s when the sorcerors were polite…what?
That’s Post-Mortem Communication and Networking Studies, thankyouverymuch.
I had no idea! When did Texas A&M expand its curriculum?
I believe you’re talking about the event in 2007 in Saudi Arabia but as I understand it the death sentence was from the lowest court in Saudi Arabia and the king later dismissed the case for being retarded.
I don’t think your user name is stupidly long 
Yeah, those were the days. Sorcerers used to respect their Imams. Nowadays all you get is backtalk!
ETA: SA= Saudi Arabia
If he’s a real Sorcerer, he’ll get up after the beheading and put his head back on.
The fascinating part for me is that to be a real sorccer, one has to get it (your predictions) right, if you get it wrong, you obviously are either an idiot, lier or general fraud. It strikes me like a relatively easy case to win.
“Look, my client hasn’t got a prediction right in six months. If he could really see the future, he would have known you were coming for him and he would have gotten out of the country. Since he didn’t, he obviously has no such powers, so he is innocent. In other words, ladies and gentlemen of the jury …err… just gentlemen…If the prediction doesn’t sit, you must acquit.”
Scenarios:
- Saudi Arabian officials sincerely believe sorcery is real and are afraid of it and put a man to death for it.
- Saudi Arabian officials do not give a whit about sorcery but don’t like this guy for some reason and execute him on trumped up charges (which Saudis have a long history of doing)
And the brains at Straight Dope went with 1.
Never attribute to Malice that which can be more easily explained by stupidity.
Nice retort!
Yes, the entire judicial system of Saudi Arabia is stupid. So stupid they believe in witchcraft! The long history of government corruption and falsely accusing people and forcing them into confessions and executing people who don’t fall into lock-step with the government isn’t worth consideration. They are just stupid cave people who are 'fraid of ghosts! Haha stupid Arabs!
What do you think they’ve got against him? He’s not even a Saudi national.
Who gives a shit if they actually believe in it or not? The fact is, that’s the pretence, and such laws shouldn’t even be on the books.
I dunno, what do they have against witches? Why is it easier to assume Saudis have some weird cultural thing against witches we’ve never heard of before today? There is a lot of evidence that they hold people who have slighted the government and prosecute/execute on unrelated trumped up charges. This just happens to be an even more unusual case that the press decided to run with.
Yeah, who gives a shit about that ignorance stuff.
Executing someone for “sorcery” is reprehensible in and of itself; whether or not the Saudis actually believe in sorcery is beside the point.
Good point! It’s not like religious fanatics have a history of witch trials, right?
How much do any of us know about the Saudi justice system? That BBC article says an Egyptian national was executed for witchcraft just a couple of years ago, so this guy wouldn’t be the first in recent memory or anything.
Not just Saudi. IIRC, a few years ago someone was killed for a similar reason in Africa.
From the article cited just above;
"There is no legal definition of witchcraft in Saudi Arabia, but horoscopes and fortune telling are condemned as un-Islamic.
Nevertheless, there is still a big thirst for such services in a country where widespread superstition survives under the surface of strict religious orthodoxy, the BBC’s Sebastian Usher says."
Look, if we didn’t have the rule of law and our education system and a dozen other things like widespread and accountable law enforcement, I have no problem believing that we’d be seeing executions for “witchcraft” in parts of the US. We certainly see it without trial in parts of Africa and Asia, carried out by angry mobs.
And we are talking about the Saudi Religious Police here, not real law enforcement.