Middle East Focus-Arabia Deserta: A Magicless Kingdom of Arabia, Another Beheading in aTwilight Zone Kingdom…………………

Arabia Deserta

A Magicless Kingdom of Arabia, Another Beheading in aTwilight Zone Kingdom…………………

"Amnesty International is calling on Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to stop the execution of a Lebanese man sentenced to death for "sorcery." In a statement released Thursday, the international rights group condemned the verdict and demanded the immediate release of Ali Hussain Sibat, former host of a popular call-in show that aired on Sheherazade, a Beirut based satellite TV channel. 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 attorney, May El Khansa, who is in Lebanon, tells CNN her client was arrested by Saudi Arabia's religious police (known as the Mutawa'een) and charged with sorcery while visiting the country in May 2008. Sibat was in Saudi Arabia to perform the Islamic religious pilgrimage known as as Umra..........”

He will get beheaded in a public square after the noon prayer, with a large crowd watching, just before they head home for a lunch of lamb or camel meat. The man is a Lebanese Shi’a (Shi’ite) which means that over there he is the next best thing to an evil sorcerer. He may not drink the blood of good Wahhabi children,nor poison their wells, nor be the cause of a Black Plague. He has other credentials, as far as these judges are concerned.

Does he look sinister to you?

And what is wrong with having a little magic in ones life? The Saudis should try it, it is great for relationships. It may even make them happy, some magic.Much better than beheading a hapless pilgrim in a public square.

And so it goes, in the "moderate" New Middle East of the darkest corner of the 21st century.

Cheers

mhg

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