 | | KSA's new improved Committee for the Prevention of Vice and the Promotion of Mai Tai Cocktails. You put the lime in the coconut and... |
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia's powerful morality police is launching a witch hunt in the birthplace of Islam.
| Run, Harry Potter! The Death Eaters! |
The Authority for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is setting up special centres in all cities to "register complaints on sorcerers and charlatans, track them and terminate them", the authority's chief Sheikh Ibrahim bin Abdallah al-Ghaith told al-Madinah newspaper.
| "Terminating" them sounds pretty permanent. |
Islam forbids magic and practicing it is considered blasphemy. Saudi newspapers often report incidents involving so-called sorcerers, mainly from the Indian subcontinent and Africa. Some Saudis pay them vast amounts of money, hoping to uncover hidden treasures or get jobs, according to the papers.
| Ummm... The customers aren't blaspheming, but the witches are? Sounds logical... I guess... In an Arab sort of way... |
| The ones with 'vast amounts of money' get to make the rules in most lands ... |
The religious police have wide powers in Saudi Arabia, which imposes a strict version of Sunni Islam, to prevent the spread of drugs, alcohol and prostitution as well as stop unrelated men and women mixing in public. |