Pot, meet kettle

A Lebanese man is to be executed in Saudi Arabia on Friday because he was convicted of the crime of...wait for it....witchcraft! Link to the AP story is here: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hQ_jb3NeJqD5cjGvkNxW5Jlje9AwD9EQBAQO0

The charlatan in question made some 'psychic predictions' and thus invoked the ire of the towel-headed and cotton-brained Saudis in charge. The sandbox of Saudi Arabia is a devoutly muslim country and is ruled by sharia law. Each year the religious police round up loads of self-proclaimed psychics, fortune tellers and wizards and has executed some of this number in the past. From the article "Sibat (the 'psychic in question) is one of scores of people reported arrested every year in the kingdom for practicing sorcery, witchcraft, black magic and fortunetelling. These practices are considered polytheism by the government in Saudi Arabia, a deeply religious Muslim country." ANd in any other right thinking country, these practices are considered to be nonsense.

Here we have a theocracy, a political system whose basis is fantasy and mythology, confidently declaring another imaginary practice to be evil and worthy of punishment. It is refreshing to see that christianity does not have a lock on the gold medal for irrationality. No, islam is right up there too, providing some pretty strong competition in the insanity olympics. Why do we even bother with these half-wit, desert dwelling morons. Islam is a religion originated about 1500 years ago and its adherants have remained firmly and immovably entrenched in the 6th century ever since. It somewhat bolsters my own private theory that the more sun-baked the individual, the more bizarre the religious belief and the more zealous the practitioner. This explains many of the crazy beliefs that cluster around the hotter regions of the globe...islam, hinduism, sihkism, crazy tribal African beliefs, even fundies who tend to cluster in the more temperate areas of the United States, although inbreeding may have also contributed here. Yes, this is a gross and unproven generalization, but it is no crazier than believing in witchcraft in the first place. Clearly, the Saudis and their ilk are all as crazy as a rat in a coffee can, although they have oil, which gives them a huge pass from the hypocrites in the West. We feign respect and kowtow to these idiots only because their countries as a whole have bucketloads of cash on hand and in the ground. Never mind that the folks in charge have couscous for brains. The leaders of the Arab countries have never seen a shiny object they did not like. Their vast storehouses of money are only surpassed by their appaling lack of taste. Like magpies, sparkly things like diamonds are irresistable and must be used to completely cover every possession-cars, cell phones, wives. Ostentatious is a complement to these theocratic lickspittles, who profess to honouring the word of islam while banging stewardesses and drinking Moet et Chandon out of their stilletos. Ah, but I digress...but not much as it happens, for this is par for the course in religious circles. If you have the cash, like the Saudis and the Vatican, splash it about on all sorts of incredibly useless objects rather than helping those under your thumb. If you are a poorer cult, you might just have to settle for polygamy and guns.