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Saudi Anti-Witchcraft Unit Breaks Another Spell

David E. Miller
Posted: July 20, 2011.

Print: The Media Line

Saudi Arabia takes witchcraft so seriously that it has banned The Harry Potter series by British writer J.K. Rowling, rife with tales of sorcery and magic. It set up the Anti-Witchcraft Unit in May 2009 and placed it under the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPV), Saudi Arabia’s religious police.

“In accordance with our Islamic tradition we believe that magic really exists,” Abdullah Jaber, a political cartoonist at the Saudi daily Al-Jazirah, told The Media Line. “The fact that an official body, subordinate to the Saudi Ministry of Interior, has a unit to combat sorcery proves that the government recognizes this, like Muslims worldwide.”

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Comments (4)

The Anti-Witchcraft unit claimed that they were able to break the spell.  I want this job.  Give me a big police truck, authority to arrest people, some anti-witchcraft books, and hopefully a cushy office and fat paycheck, and I’ll roll around anywhere you want investigating magic and breaking spells.  Bet these guys never have to work overtime.  “Hey Akbar, it’s getting close to 4:30.  Whadaya say we break this spell in the next couple minutes and call it a day?”

posted on July 20, 2011
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It’s a good thing those Muslim Anti-witchers won’t be able to break the “Spell” of Reason on a good number of us that seek to continuously cast it on everyone one we meet! But just in case I’ll hide those Hoar Crux’s where they are sure to never look!

posted on July 20, 2011
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Never a truer statement has been uttered about witchcraft and religion, “It’s a matter of ignorance,” Jaber added. “If people were more educated they wouldn’t believe in this.”

posted on July 21, 2011
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If they had any sense of humor, they’d call the unit ‘Witch Busters’. But of course, they are dead serious about it - which, given our experiences in the West in the Middle Ages regarding witches, makes me shudder. I don’t know if I should laugh or cry out loud: YOU idiots!

posted on July 27, 2011
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