Saudi Arabia to execute TV psychic

[Calculon]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20091124/twl-tv-presenter-on-death-row-for-witchc-3fd0ae9.html
Ali Sibat is not even a Saudi national. The Lebanese citizen was only visiting Saudi Arabia on pilgrimage when he was arrested in Medina last year.

A court in the city condemned him as a witch on November 9.

The only evidence presented in court was reportedly the claim he appeared regularly on Lebanese satellite issuing general advice on life and making predictions about the future.


Seems a tad excessive...

[hgc]

Making predictions on TV can get you killed? All the panelists on The McLaughlin Group had better stay out of Saudi Arabia. They're always making crackpot predictions.

Really, is there no limit to what excuse bloodthirsty lunatics will resort to for another scalp?

[Skeptic Ginger]

Wow, how can these guys expect to ever join the modern world?

Oh wait, some of them don't want to.

[HansMustermann]

I think wanting to stay in the good ol' early middle ages is kinda the whole point of the Wahhabi sect.

[Darth Rotor]

A lovely thread on this topic here:

http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=160337

And Sylvia Browne walks free ...

[grayman]

Wow, how can these guys expect to ever join the modern world?

Oh wait, some of them don't want to.

They want to party like it's 999.

[Eyeron]

psychics are called witches in the Bible and "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" is very Biblical. So whenever skeptics are exposing pychics they are doing God's work.

[Soapy Sam]

Can I propose we have a whipround and send Slyvia on Haj?

[X]

Okay, I'm all for denouncing crackpot psychics and voodoo doctors, but execution is a tad extreme.

More than a tad.

It's appalling. Especially that with all we know of how things work, that such a charge is even given consideration on the world stage. How ignorant and backward can a country get?

This does not reflect well on Saudi Arabia.

But shouldn't this be in politics or current events?

[NewtonTrino]

Honestly Saudi can't really sink any lower than it already is. Don't worry though, once the oil runs out they'll be wandering the desert on camels again. I wish that were a joke but they aren't building any kind of lasting economic structure or culture of industry.

[I Ratant]

Wouldn't a true psychic have "foreseen" the difficulty in going to the Stone Age.. oops, Saudi Arabia, and chosen some other less fatal vacation scene?

[Marduk]

psychics are called witches in the Bible and "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" is very Biblical. So whenever skeptics are exposing pychics they are doing God's work.

are they ?
then what are prophets ?
:D

[slingblade]

are they ?
then what are prophets ?
:D

They aren't witches.

If a prophet is always accurate, without fail, he is of god, and sanctified.
If he is ever wrong, even once, he is a false prophet. I think the punishment is death by stoning, and not the herbal sort. :p

[TimCallahan]

A lovely thread on this topic here:

http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=160337

And Sylvia Browne walks free ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L9hki5Nlyo

[negativ]

shouldn't the stock photo accompanying the article be a sword rather than a rope?

[Achán hiNidráne]

Seems a tad excessive...

Excessive? It's a damn good start! Let's send Sylvia Browne and Uri Geller there while the scimitar is still sharp.

[KingMerv00]

Saudi Arabia to execute TV psychic


Dumb meets Dumber.









I'm so going to hell.

[Marduk]

They aren't witches.

If a prophet is always accurate, without fail, he is of god, and sanctified.
If he is ever wrong, even once, he is a false prophet. I think the punishment is death by stoning, and not the herbal sort. :p

ah right so new biblical definition
Witches - stupid people who foretell the near future and get it wrong at least once in a society that kills for failing.
Prophets - not so stupid people who foretell the distant future and are long dead before anyone can check if its wrong or not in a society that kills for failing.

thanks
:D

[HansMustermann]

They aren't witches.

If a prophet is always accurate, without fail, he is of god, and sanctified.
If he is ever wrong, even once, he is a false prophet. I think the punishment is death by stoning, and not the herbal sort. :p

So, they should have stoned Jonah? :p

[Cainkane1]

Wow, how can these guys expect to ever join the modern world?

Oh wait, some of them don't want to.
The free world is letting these people immigrate. Scary.

[jadey]

The only evidence presented in court was reportedly the claim he appeared regularly on Lebanese satellite issuing general advice on life and making predictions about the future.

I've heard that Saudi Arabia has a shortage of weathermen. :)

[TimCallahan]

ah right so new biblical definition
Witches - stupid people who foretell the near future and get it wrong at least once in a society that kills for failing.
Prophets - not so stupid people who foretell the distant future and are long dead before anyone can check if its wrong or not in a society that kills for failing.

thanks
:D

Actually, even if you get the prophecy right, if you aren't playing for the home team, you're in trouble (Deuteronomy 13:1 - 3):

If a prophet arises among you or a dreamer of dreams, and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder which he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, "Let us go after other gods" which you have not known, "and let us serve them," you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and all your soul.

So, if you get it wrong, you're a false prophet and you get stoned. On the other hand, if you get it right, peope shouldn't believe you, because God is only testing them. That makes you witch, diviner, etc. . . . and you get stoned. It seems everybody must get stoned.

Of course, modern false prophets, like Hal Lindsey, hedge their bets with such prhrases as, "if this interpretation is true, and it seems to be . . ." Perhaps we could ship him to Saudi Arabia along with Uri Geller and company.

[jadey]

If a prophet arises among you or a dreamer of dreams, and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder which he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, "Let us go after other gods" which you have not known, "and let us serve them," you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and all your soul.

They covered all the bases, you got to give them that.

everybody must get stoned.

So sayeth Bob Dylan

[AgeGap]

...religious police...

Fear them. Fear any ****tard who wants to do similar BS in your country.

[mike3]

Okay, I'm all for denouncing crackpot psychics and voodoo doctors, but execution is a tad extreme.

More than a tad.


Agreed.


It's appalling. Especially that with all we know of how things work, that such a charge is even given consideration on the world stage. How ignorant and backward can a country get?

This does not reflect well on Saudi Arabia.

But shouldn't this be in politics or current events?

What's the problem with giving the charge consideration, esp. if the consideration was given in order to denounce it? As you say, it's extreme (and presumably wrong)!

[Almo]

I have to be honest. I can't believe that in 2009, a stable government is going to execute someone for being a witch. But I always remember the one line from Sleeping Beauty the stuck in my mind: "But father! This is the 14th Century!" I think it was Sleeping Beauty, anyway. It was definitely a Disney animated film.

But that line made a big impression on me. :)

[Furcifer]

I'm not sure which is stupider, the psychic who didn't see this coming or the people that think he's a psychic even though he didn't see this coming.

[Limbo]

psychics are called witches in the Bible and "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" is very Biblical. So whenever skeptics are exposing pychics they are doing God's work.


Is all that what you personally believe?

[Eyeron]

Is all that what you personally believe?

No. I was just being a bit morbidly flippant. I am actually an atheist and I tend to ridicule stupid things like that.

I don't doubt though that there are people that truly do believe that way though.

[I Ratant]

No. I was just being a bit morbidly flippant. I am actually an atheist and I tend to ridicule stupid things like that.

I don't doubt though that there are people that truly do believe that way though.
.
God works in mysterious ways.
Using the (filthy, immoral, unethical) hands of an atheist to cleanse the world of false prophets/psychics would be quite in keeping with his bizarre ways of interacting with the world.

[aviolet4u]

I have to be honest. I can't believe that in 2009, a stable government is going to execute someone for being a witch. But I always remember the one line from Sleeping Beauty the stuck in my mind: "But father! This is the 14th Century!"I think it was Sleeping Beauty, anyway. It was definitely a Disney animated film.

But that line made a big impression on me. :)

oh my goodness I loved that as well, not to mention he was the best looking Disney prince ever! :p He wanted to marry what he thought was a commoner and his father already had that arranged marriage set up with the princess. I was showing the movie online to my little cousins and that totally went over my head as a child haha.

So did they ease up on his sentence? Give him 100 lashes instead? Isn't that sad when someone hopes for 100 lashes instead? He'd probably just wish for the death sentence poor guy.

[Beerina]

Isn't the execution because he's a real witch? So just prove that you're a fraud and take the lesser penalty.

[ThatSoundAgain]

The free world is letting these people immigrate. Scary.

I'm under the impression that the religious extremists rather like it where they can call the shots, and that the ones who get out of there are the moderates and dissidents who can't live in a theocracy.

I'll be glad for my country to take in any persecuted reformists. If a few deluded TV psychics get in on that account, that's a small price to pay.

[TimCallahan]

What I don't get is why Silvia Browne didnt forsee this and warn the guy, via the ether, not to go to Saudi Arabia. Prehaps she should be prosecuted for depraved indifference.

Of course, it's possible his ether filters were clogged, which is why he didn't forsee it himself. I wonder what sort of goop clogs ether filters, anyway.

Finally, I'm curious why it is that the man isn't given a chance to recant and repent. Throughout the Qur'an I kept coming across the phrase, "God is most merciful and gracious."

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

Dear Immigrating Saudi,

You are not allowed to kill witches here. We recommend that you just laugh and laugh and laugh.

Sincerely,

[Steelmage]

So what year is this again?
I thought we were in the 21st century, not the year 210.

[Darth Rotor]

So what year is this again?
I thought we were in the 21st century, not the year 210.

Vargas I know, 2009 is the year, but an accumulation of years has never prevented human stupidity before. Why should this year be any different?

DR

The Vargas was a ref to your avatar. ;) Horrid pun, I admit.

[TimCallahan]

So, have the Saudis executed this poor soul yet?

[rockinkt]

Criminal Code of Canada:

365. Every one who fraudulently

(a) pretends to exercise or to use any kind of witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment or conjuration,

(b) undertakes, for a consideration, to tell fortunes, or

(c) pretends from his skill in or knowledge of an occult or crafty science to discover where or in what manner anything that is supposed to have been stolen or lost may be found,

is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.

[jadey]

Criminal Code of Canada:

365. Every one who fraudulently

(a) pretends to exercise or to use any kind of witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment or conjuration,

(b) undertakes, for a consideration, to tell fortunes, or

(c) pretends from his skill in or knowledge of an occult or crafty science to discover where or in what manner anything that is supposed to have been stolen or lost may be found,

is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.

So real witches are OK. Cool. Its those fraudulent witches that dangerous to society.

[HansMustermann]

You can tell who's real by the fact that the fraudulent ones weigh more than a duck ;)

[rockinkt]

Criminal Code of Canada:

365. Every one who fraudulently

(a) pretends to exercise or to use any kind of witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment or conjuration,

(b) undertakes, for a consideration, to tell fortunes, or

(c) pretends from his skill in or knowledge of an occult or crafty science to discover where or in what manner anything that is supposed to have been stolen or lost may be found,

is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.

I have asked very senior level Officers of the RCMP as to why no charges are laid against Sylvia Browne and her type when they visit Canada and charge money thereby violating Sec.365 (b)&(c).
I think the most honest answer was that they were afraid that the hundreds of thousands - if not millions - of her fans would storm the detachment and lynch the arresting officers.

[Skeptic]

Anybody pitching in to get Sylvia Browne a ticket for an all-expenses-paid visit to Saudi Arabia?

[MaryCBW]

Excessive? It's a damn good start! Let's send Sylvia Browne and Uri Geller there while the scimitar is still sharp.

Chip Coffee needs a ticket too.

[MaryCBW]

Actually, even if you get the prophecy right, if you aren't playing for the home team, you're in trouble (Deuteronomy 13:1 - 3):

If a prophet arises among you or a dreamer of dreams, and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder which he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, "Let us go after other gods" which you have not known, "and let us serve them," you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and all your soul.

So, if you get it wrong, you're a false prophet and you get stoned. On the other hand, if you get it right, peope shouldn't believe you, because God is only testing them. That makes you witch, diviner, etc. . . . and you get stoned. It seems everybody must get stoned.

Of course, modern false prophets, like Hal Lindsey, hedge their bets with such prhrases as, "if this interpretation is true, and it seems to be . . ." Perhaps we could ship him to Saudi Arabia along with Uri Geller and company.

" everybody must get stoned."

Why?

Because Bob Dylan said that answer was blowing in the wind.

[Kopji]

Makes me want to build a fence around the whole place and put a 'do not open till 2060' sign on it.

[Ravynn123]

What do you expect from a country that won't let women drive cars? They truly are living in the dark ages. And because of this and other stupid things like this I am rethinking the whole I am a muslim thing.

[MaryCBW]

What do you expect from a country that won't let women drive cars? They truly are living in the dark ages. And because of this and other stupid things like this I am rethinking the whole I am a muslim thing.

Well......don't decide to try a snake handling church. God may be busy and not be available to save you from your own stupidity. Playing with poisonous snakes has to be one of the dumbest ideas......ever.

[Ravynn123]

Well......don't decide to try a snake handling church. God may be busy and not be available to save you from your own stupidity. Playing with poisonous snakes has to be one of the dumbest ideas......ever.


lol. yeah I am thinking more a long the lines of religion being bs...

[TimCallahan]

So, now that it's January 2010, have the Saudi's executed the guy yet?

As far as snake handling goes, perhaps we could get "Islamist" Muslims to do it.

[Ravynn123]

hmm that is certainly worth a try.