Saudi Woman Faces Death For Witchcraft

(AP)  A leading human rights group appealed to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah on Thursday to stop the execution of a woman accused of witchcraft and performing supernatural acts.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement that the kingdom's religious police who arrested and interrogated Fawza Falih, and the judges who tried her in the northern town of Quraiyat never gave her the opportunity to prove her innocence in the face of "absurd charges that have no basis in law."

Falih's case underscores shortcomings in Saudi Arabia's Islamic legal system in which rules of evidence are shaky, lawyers are not always present and sentences often depend on the whim of judges.

The most frequent victims are women, who already suffer severe restrictions on daily life in Saudi Arabia: They cannot drive, appear before a judge without a male representative, or travel abroad without a male guardian's permission.

Witchcraft is considered an offense against Islam in the conservative kingdom.

In Falih's case, the judges relied on a coerced confession and on the statements of witnesses who said she had "bewitched" them to convict her in April 2006, according to the group.

Falih later retracted her confession in court, claiming it was extracted under duress, and said that as an illiterate woman, she did not understand the document she was forced to fingerprint.

"The fact that Saudi judges still conduct trials for unprovable crimes like 'witchcraft' underscores their inability to carry out objective criminal investigations," said Joe Stork, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

There was no immediate comment on the statement from Saudi Arabia, where government offices are closed on Thursdays, the start of the Muslim weekend.

"Fawza Falih's case is an example of how the authorities failed to comply even with existing safeguards in the Saudi justice system," he added.

The Saudi court cited an instance in which a man allegedly became impotent after being bewitched by Falih, the rights group said.

An appeals court ruled in September 2006 that Falih could not be sentenced to death for witchcraft because she had retracted her confession. But a lower court subsequently reissued the death sentence for the benefit of "public interest" and to "protect the creed, souls and property of this country," the group's statement said.

HRW statement came a day after Yakin Erturk, the U.N. special investigator for violence against women, wrapped up a 10-day visit to Saudi Arabia during which she highlighted another controversial case that has attracted international criticism.

Ertuk met with Fatima and Mansour al-Timani, who were forcibly divorced by the wife's family on grounds she had married someone from a lesser tribe.

The couple learned of the divorce on Feb. 25, 2006, when police knocked on their door to serve Mansour the divorce papers.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Erturk said she met the wife and husband who were in a "terrible state of mind" and that Saudi officials had promised her arrangements would be made for the couple's reunion, according to Saudi newspaper Arab News.

Unidentified Saudi women walk along a suburban street in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in this Nov. 15, 2006 file photo

[nothappyatall]

"Off to another board. See if you can find me, Christian baiters."

Hopefully it will a real ''nother board like abcnews or nbcnews and not just another board HERE.

"Remember, this article is about SHARIA LAW, and has nothing to do with Christianity."

The two are totally inseperable as one shows the other''''s true colors and history.


"But you anti-Christian bigots always manage to twist every forum discussion that a Christian posts on into an attack on the Bible and Christianity"

YOU are the one who constantly brings up BOTH in here every topic, and multiple times in each, it gets to the point where its like a dam sunday school mini bibull lessonette and god promotion on this site!

If your god is so great then let him SPEAK FOR HIMSELF, not thru you, not thru some stupid BOOK cobled together by various men we know little about!

"Good bye.
See if you can find me, because Ill know youll stalk me down.
Posted by stingingprick"

GOODBYE then! but I dont believe it, your writing style is so easy to spot it wont be long before we recognize your new personna here- you are the ONLY one here who CONSTANTLY subjects and inflicts god and bibull on the readers here in every topic, multiple times in every one of them, you are OBSESSED with both 24/7 and now its clear to us how much pain your religion is causing YOU.

[nothappyatall]

Oops, typo, not "report" but rePOST

[nothappyatall]

BIBLE EXPOSURE WARNING:

Exposure to contents for extended periods of time or during formative years in children may cause delusions, hallucinations, decreased cognitive and objective reasoning abilities, and, in extreme cases, pathological disorders, hatred, bigotry, and violence including, but not limited to fanaticism, murder, and genocide.
Posted by Displeased

Just love it, so I gotta report it :)

[nothappyatall]

From the dork who LIED and said he was leaving, even saying ''goodbye!''

"The gospel is for you non-believers to come to Christ and turn from your sins.

Posted by stingingprick "

Im not only atheist, but I dont believe in your warped concept of ''sin'' any more than I believe the tooth fairy put quarters under my pillow at night when I was a kid. ''Sin'' is your right wing idea of mind and behaviour control ala Santa Clause who rewards you for being ''good'' and punishes you for being ''bad'' by giving you no presents (odd how Santa is so similar to your jezus figure!)

Now, about that other board you claimed you were leaving here to go to- GO TO IT and stop telling me or anyone else here who is sick of religion and spits on it- what to think or do, you will NEVER, EVER, change my mind or opinion on this topic, so dont even bother or waste my time or yours.
I would sooner BURN the bibull than read that depressing, hypocritical, blood thirsty, ghastly, death tome again.

[sigotratando]

"Don''t tell a Christian to read the gospel Candide777. We already know it."
... Posted by singinrick

Reading the Bible is not the same as comprehending the it; & "knowing it" implies ''committed to memory'', but that still does not confer comprehension or even facility in applying the knowledge. And it is an amazingly absolute assumption to say that Christians know the Bible. New Christians may not know anything but John 3:16! Further, there are many "Christians" who learn enough to expect some sort of momentum toward heaven & then cease to grow. Even a single passage will say different things to the same individual based on his or her spiritual needs at the time. So the words really are a dry vehicle that can be used as a weapon or for healing ... "knowing" them may get one nowhere.

In fact, Satan "knows" the Bible better than we humans do (unless one has a photographic memory & has memorized every period & comma; & has connected all the ''dots'' across the whole spectrum of spirituality covered in the book). There is a significant lesson to be learned from Christ''s encounter with Satan in the desert. Do I dare recommend that you "read" that again?

Maybe what the poster meant by "read" was "apply yourself to comprehending"?

[sigotratando]

Denn034, I would also say that your logic with respect to Leviticus is suspect. First, your reply seems to have no relevance to my use of the word hater. Second, the answer to your rhetorical question, "Is God a hater", is: if your quote is "God hates [something]", then yes, God is a hater. That changes the nature of your "If not, then" conclusion, doesn''t it?

One might say that "oppose homosexuality" is an excuse to righteously "hate" because the "opposing" involves fomenting murderous thots in others by using inflammatory & "thou art a witch" type of accusations without even the remotest attempt at proving it.

[sigotratando]

Denn034, let me try this again. Your statement was: "It''s unfortunate that Muslims reject Christ''s removing the death penalty for such" where I merely questioned the reference to "removing the death penalty for such" because the implication is that there is something from which ("for such") to remove the death penalty, which in this case is the accusation that one is practicing witchcraft. Was it proven she was practicing witchcraft?

My statement about the power to judge was that your presumption rested on a judgment of guilt for an unproven offense. And even if it was proven that she was practicing witchcraft, what would she be guilty of that Christ''s sacrifice couldn''t forgive, as he forgives even the smallest of your own sins? That''s my point.

But further, you may say, "the Bible says [this or that], & that could be a fact (well, sort of, since you''re not reading from the original language, and interpretations are just that), but what "facts" were you stating? And how odd that you would pick a verse to support judging "righteously", since "righteousness" doesn''t appear to have an objective standard. I''m afraid that you may be attributing unto yourself a merit, knowledge, or other attainment not actually possessed.

[nothappyatall]

Look around you! Its not Christians committing these atrocities around the globe. Its radical Muslims who are strictly following their Quran!
PLEASE GET HELP.
Posted by stingingprick at 11:30 PM
==
Yes, just because we spent several centuries torturing and murdering heretics who refused to repent and accept the one true God as their Lord and Saviour doesnt mean we are in any way similar to Islamic extremists! Duh! Give me a break!

Posted by singinprick"

Well said singingprick, isnt it funny how the right wing radicals like stinkingprick (rick) seem to overlook all that, as well as pat robertsons et al public statements that g@ys and their acceptance will cause destruction of the country by god, and that we should assassinate Chavez and others!

There are none so blind as those who view life filtered through the stained glass of church windows.

[gce65]

Again from the movie Syriana:
"...a hundred years ago you were living in tents out here in the desert chopping each other''s heads off and that''s where you''ll be in another hundred years."

Wipe with the left hand, eat with the right!

[nothappyatall]

"Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place." (Deuteronomy 12:2-3)
Comment

The Lord, here commands the destruction of all the places where people worship other gods. There appears not a shred of religious tolerance here!

"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own-- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism."

-Albert Einstein
"The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked." (Psalms 58:10)
Comment

How many "good" Christians realize that such a verse appears in the Bible? Of course most preachers keep these bloodthirsty words away from their congregations, and the few Christians who do come across these verses, re-interpret them for their own purposes, not realizing the impact these words can have on others. Unfortunately the few that take these verses literally can justify atrocities against anyone who they wish to define as "wicked."