Saudi Arabia Beheads Man Convicted of Sorcery

The White House deserves praise for condemning Iran over their violations of religious freedom. Hopefully they have time for one more :

A migrant worker from the Sudan was beheaded yesterday as the punishment for practicing sorcery in Saudi Arabia. Amnesty International had campaigned to release the man with no avail.

A Sudanese man convicted of sorcery was beheaded by sword on Sept. 20, in Medina, Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Gazette says the Interior Ministry issued a statement saying the African had “’Practiced witchcraft and sorcery,’ which are illegal under Shariah law.”
Abdul Hamid bin Hussein Mostafa al-Fakki, a migrant worker from Sudan, was arrested in 2005 in Medina on charges of witchcraft, by the Mutawa’een, the religious police known as the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. His trial was held in secret in 2007 and according to Bikyamasr al-Fakki was found guilty of “Producing a spell designed to lead to the reconciliation of his client’s divorced parents.”

While the U.S. doesn’t have much influence with Iran, we can—and should—put pressure on the Saudis to stop these types of abuses.