For The Left: ABU DHABI TO MAKE SORCERY A CRIME-

FROM JONATHAN TURLEY'S BLOG

SHOULDN'T WE HAVE THIS IS N. CAROLINA AND TEXAS TOO?

Abu Dhabi Moves To Impose Severe Criminal Punishment on Sorcerers

Abu Dhabi is taking a step back in following other Muslim countries criminalizing “sorcery.” We have seen countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia pursue witches and sorcerers under Sharia laws. Abu Dhabi currently treats sorcerers as a form of fraud but now wants heavier criminal penalty as a form of blasphemy.

Sorcery is a form of free speech, though it can amount to fraud in some cases. Thus, the 1983 law in Abu Dhabi comes closer to the mark in treating the matter as a matter of fraudulent conduct, though it is wrong to prohibit consenting adults to participate in such associations as a categorical matter. However, the Koran speaks of sorcerers and genies as unIslamic.

Hadeya Al Hammad, an Emirati lawyer in Abu Dhabi, insisted that while this should be viewed as a scam it is also a form of blasphemy under Sharia law and should warrant higher punishments.

14 Responses to “Abu Dhabi Moves To Impose Severe Criminal Punishment on Sorcerers”

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Dredd1, November 4, 2013 at 8:36 am

Send in the clowns …
nick spinelli1, November 4, 2013 at 9:06 am

I’m guessing Amazon doesn’t sell many Harry Potter books in that region.
Brittius1, November 4, 2013 at 9:28 am

Reblogged this on Brittius.com.
Justice Holmes1, November 4, 2013 at 9:43 am

It would be funny if these governments were not exerting tremendous pressure to incorporate blasphemy into international law and to justify trying foreigners in absentia for blasphemy. The impact on free speech of wandering “religious” police enforcing blasphemy laws is chilling at best.
BarkinDog1, November 4, 2013 at 10:09 am

These Pirate Territories are almost as bad as England which is prosecuting a guy for transporting the Snowden Papers, which are no different than the Pentagon Papers. Boycott the Pirate Territories and England. Don’t call England something like “Great Britain” There is nothing Great about the place.
Anonymously Yours1, November 4, 2013 at 10:12 am

What is a sorcerer to some is not to others….. I’d need to see the specific claimed definition…..
Juliet N.1, November 4, 2013 at 11:02 am

You get your own TV show for being a huckster of the occult, here,
Annie1, November 4, 2013 at 11:11 am

Didn’t Sarah Palin have a Pastor from an African country, who engaged in real witch hunts, pray over her in her fundamentalist church? If this nation were to succumb to Pastor Cruz and his son’s influences, could we be looking at similar legislation? Yes it’s laughable, but never say never.
Mike Spindell1, November 4, 2013 at 11:19 am

“If this nation were to succumb to Pastor Cruz and his son’s influences, could we be looking at similar legislation? Yes it’s laughable, but never say never.”

Annie,

That is absolutely true. Were certain elements to gain control in this country the actions such as this in Islamic countries would seem comparable. If one listens to the speeches of Christian Dominionists and reads their writing, they want the same level of intolerance and muting of speech, only from a Christian point of view which is no less repressive.
Annie1, November 4, 2013 at 11:29 am

Mike, I have watched a couple of videos of the elder Cruz preaching and going on about the anointed Kings and the Kings being RIGHTOUS in redistributing the wealth of the sinful to the Priests. Scary stuff. Dominionism and government.
Annie1, November 4, 2013 at 11:30 am

And WHO annoits the Kings and Priests I wonder.
Mike Spindell1, November 4, 2013 at 11:55 am

Annie,

You may have missed this which I wrote a few weeks ago:

http://jonathanturley.org/2013/10/12/ted-cruz-dominionism-and-jesus/
Annie1, November 4, 2013 at 12:09 pm

Thanks Mike!
davidbluefish1, November 4, 2013 at 12:52 pm

There are sorcerers everywhere!!!! Ernest Angsley was arrested in Germany for practicing medicine without a license. (1984)

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1986-03-08/news/8601170747_1_healers-grant-secular-humanism

Flamboyant American television faith-healers Ernest Angley and W.V. Grant Jr., both of whom have been portrayed in an unflattering light before, are being sharply derided as “quacks“ and “conjurers“ worthy of sideshow status in traveling carnivals.

The attack comes in a shrill and sweeping “expose“ published in the just-released issue of Free Inquiry, the quarterly journal of the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism.

…… In a separate examination of evangelist Angley, who presides over Grace Cathedral in Akron, Ohio, the magazine detailed what it described as the faith-healer`s “curious antics“ and “incomprehensible“ sermons. It recalled his 1984 arrest and imprisonment in Munich, West Germany, on charges of practicing medicine without a license, an action taken by German authorities after a Swiss woman named Anna Berner reportedly died of a heart attack at one of Angley`s services in Munich.