TV Mystic Lingers in Saudi Jail

[panzerfaust]

Source: NYT

CAIRO — The sorcerer still has his head.

But for how long?

For more than two years, Ali Hussain Sibat of Lebanon has been held in a prison in Saudi Arabia, convicted of sorcery and sentenced to death. His head is to be chopped off by an executioner wielding a long, curved sword...

Several times in recent months, Mr. Sibat’s lawyer, his wife and his four children were told he would, any day, be escorted to a public square for his beheading. And several times, the execution was postponed after an outcry from international human rights groups and the Lebanese government.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/world/middleeast/25saudi.html

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I certainly do not wish to be accused of lack of respect for other cultures - but I confess that I do find, not only the sentence and the method of execution, but the charged crime itself to belong to an age of history which I would have thought was long past.

[fleabert]

1. i live in the middle east, and i would not- for all the money in the world- step foot in Saudi.

and we have had the opportunity. no thanks.

jordan, lebanon? sure. Saudi, Yemen, Iran? no way.

[msanthrope]

2. One need not respect the stupid, merely because it is their claimed culture.

Not all cultural practices deserve 'respect.'

[harmonicon]

3. one more reason to condemn the death penalty in the US

Once you've decided that killing someone is ok, I don't think the method is all that important. The justification for this by the Saudis is only supported by other countries which have the death penalty, by the mere fact that it exists.

[samsingh]

7. this is nothing like the death penalty here

i don't think anyone is on deathrow because they told fortunes on TV here in the US.

[harmonicon]

9. my point is that it's irrelevant

Killing people is wrong, flat out. There is no justification for it. How is it justifiable that someone could be put to death in one state for a crime they wouldn't be put to death for in another? Same goes for country-to-country as far as I'm concerned. What is remarkable isn't the crime (sure, it's ridiculous, but many things people are prosecuted for are), but the punishment.

[samsingh]

10. i believe that murderers should be executed

with the caveat that we must ensure that innocent people are not involved.

i think the victims should be considered and it is wrong not to punish those that murder them.

[harmonicon]

12. innocent people are involved in the killing - is that not wrong?

The fact is, by holding this position, you have more in common with the Saudis and Chinese than with the civilized world, which has rejected capital punishment as an outdated barbaric practice. I don't think there is a justifiable way to expect one person to kill another for any reason. That is why murder is wrong and why execution is wrong. There is a very very simple rule that my parents drilled into me as a child: two wrongs don't = right.

[samsingh]

16. it's not wrong to execute a murderer

i don't buy your argument that my position is comon with the Saudis and Chinese. for example, i don't believe that people should be stoned to death for public shows of affection, nor do i believe that political dissenters should be executed.

I do believe that people like dahmer and bundy should be executed. I think about the horrors that their innocent victims endured and i believe there should be retribution.

Can you not have a discussion based on ideas.

[harmonicon]

19. your position is in common whether you like it or not

Take a look at the company we keep: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_capital_punishment_by_nation
I don't care if people like Dahmer are killed (he wasn't executed, but raped and murdered with a broom while in prison), but I don't want that blood on my hands. I think I had a position similar to yours until I heard the supreme court arguing about what were and were not acceptable ways to take the life of a human being. It made me physically sick, and since then I've held this position. Capital punishment is a crime and should not be tolerated. Most nations realize this, but the US does not. If we want to join the community of the civilized world, it must be stopped (it is, for instance, a pre-requisite for EU membership).

[samsingh]

23. peace

[Ignis]

25. "we must ensure that innocent people are not involved"

And how, exactly, do you accomplish that? We have such a great history of only executing the guilty, of course!

www.innocenceproject.org

[Thor_MN]

21. I'm not in favor of death penalties, but I wouldn't mind getting rid of the dumbass "Ghost Buster"

shows. How many programs do we need where peopel wander around abandonned buildings in the dark freaking out everytime the imagine they hear something?

[The Wizard]

4. It's the 21st Century

and the Saudis have witch trials. Something's radically wrong.

[Codeine]

5. Yay religion!

:puke:

The apologists for for this sort of barbarism will be along shortly to remind us how wonderful, peaceful, and misunderstood this religion is and how we should all respect it.

[Yeahyeah]

6. Pat Robertson should take vacation in Saudi Arabia.

But of course they wouldn't do anything to him.

[samsingh]

8. all the right-wing religious fanatics should

we should begin with the teabaggers, hannity, coulture and beck.

[panzerfaust]

13. They would recognize him as a brother

[struggle4progress]

11. Saudi Arabia has an unwritten penal code enforced by judges who have

great latitude to do what they want. Ali Hussain Sibat left his home in Lebanon and went on a religious pilgrimage to Medina, where he was arrested by religious police who disliked his TV show in Lebanon; he was then hauled before a judge who concluded that his Lebanese TV show violated some unwritten Saudi law and merited death. There was no real way for Ali Hussain Sibat to guess he had put himself in such a situation: if the law is not explicit, how can anyone know when they are breaking it?

[fleabert]

24. and his religion required him to visit once in his lifetime...

sad.

i think he's a charlatan, but don't think he deserves to die for it.

[CBHagman]

14. I hadn't heard about the case.

Here's a link to the Amnesty International site, for those of you who want to take action on behalf of Ali Hussain Sibat or another man (unnamed) who is also being held.

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE23/006/2010/en

[CBHagman]

15. I found one report suggesting he has a lawyer...

...and that the death sentence will not be carried out.

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2010/04/21/1111533/lawyer-lebanese-not-to-be-beheaded.html

Still, I wouldn't want to risk it. Best to keep the case before the public and what pressure we can exert on.

[closeupready]

17. He has five children.

They should just expel him from the country, and prohibit him from future entry.

[unkachuck]

18. "...convicted of sorcery and sentenced to death."

....in the year 2010, I'm surprised sorcery is a capital crime in the Saudi Arabia....I can understand chopping someones legs off for jay-walking, but decapitation for sorcery? And this is the regime we've been propping-up for decades?

"...manipulating spirits, predicting the future, concocting potions and conjuring spells..."

....by this definition, every Republican should be beheaded....

[Art_from_Ark]

20. Yet another reason to take Saudi Arabia off my list

of hot vacation spots.

[lunatica]

22. As long as there are Theocracies you'll have this

Fanaticism runs rampant when you mix religion with political insatiable hunger for power. It happens every time. Few things are as corruptible as that mix. Just take a look at the Catholic Church. It breaks every commandment in it's effort to maintain it's power and wealth.

[Politicub]

26. This is like a witch burning

What century is it again?