{"id":275,"date":"2009-03-19T12:49:58","date_gmt":"2009-03-19T12:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2009\/03\/harun-potter-and-the-saudis-st.html"},"modified":"2009-03-19T12:49:58","modified_gmt":"2009-03-19T12:49:58","slug":"harun-potter-and-the-saudis-st","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/03\/harun-potter-and-the-saudis-st.html","title":{"rendered":"Harun Potter and the Saudi’s Stone"},"content":{"rendered":"

“The Dark Arts are many, varied, ever-changing and eternal. Fighting them is like fighting a many-headed monster, which, each time a neck is severed, sprouts a head even fiercer and cleverer than before. You are fighting that which is unfixed, mutating, indestructible. Your defences must therefore be as flexible and inventive as the Arts you seek to undo.”  — Severus Snape <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In these times when great evil threatens to return to menace the world, thankfully Saudi society has Aurors<\/a> to engage in Defense Against the Dark Arts<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai’a)
\nin Al-Ahsa arrested a sorcerer who dealt in magic and provided his
\nservices to several men and women, who turned to him out of a lack of
\nreligious motivation and ignorance, that sorcery became the talk of the
\ntown.<\/p>\n

Sheikh Adel Faqih, an expert in such matters and director of
\nthe Hai’a branch of sorcery in Riyadh, said, “We are in an Islamic
\ncountry which is governed by Islamic law which prohibits polytheism.
\nSorcery and magic are considered polytheism in Islam. Unfortunately,
\nsorcery is not a new phenomenon. It is a problem that has existed since
\nthe time of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).”
…
Sheikh Faqih explained that a sorcerer can be identified when he asks
\nfor the name of a patient and for the name of the patient’s mother or
\nif he is seeking to buy an animal with certain features. He can also be
\nidentified if he asks for a sheep to be killed without mentioning
\nAllah’s name and asks to stain the body with the animal’s blood or if
\nhe asks for similar unusual things.<\/p>\n

Sheikh Faqih said, “Sorcery
\ncannot be divided into two branches. There is only one kind of sorcery.
\nThere is no such thing as black or white magic. Allah said that magic
\nis infidelity and no one can be a sorcerer unless he offers sacrifices
\nto spirits and disbelieves in God.” “Sorcery deals with amulets and
\ntalismans which lead people to believe that such things can help them,
\nbut that Allah cannot,” he added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s tempting to indulge in some cultural condescension (or at least some bad movie jokes<\/a>) here, though it wasn’t too long ago that the West was engaging in much the same kind of thing (the Salem Witch Trials come to mind; so too does McCarthyism).   The silliness of the way a sorceror can be identified according to Sheikh Faqih aside, the broader theological argument is actually sound – belief in superstition, magic, and whatnot does undermine faith in Allah because it elevates these others supernatural forces to the same level as God. Often, purveyors of the supposedly supernatural are nothing more than con artists who prey upon the under-educated and weak-willed. Unfortunately, in Saudi society the bar for what constitutes criminal activity is set far too low, not just catching scam artists but also those who go against the religious grain. Freedom of religion has a long way to go, yet. <\/p>\n

Superstitions and magic are not limited to Saudi, either. My own Indian\/desi heritage is rife with various tales of “jadoo”, for example. And it’s not just muslim cultures, either – there’s a healthy and thriving magical subculture in the West, in the form of the New Age movement. Much of this is chronicled in the journal, Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft<\/i><\/a> which is an actual academic publicatoin out of the University of Pennsylvania. You can even get a grimoire of everyday spells and enchantments<\/a> downloaded to your Kindle!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The Dark Arts are many, varied, ever-changing and eternal. Fighting them is like fighting a many-headed monster, which, each time a neck is severed, sprouts a head even fiercer and cleverer than before. You are fighting that which is unfixed, mutating, indestructible. 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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}