Sorcery written in blood

Photo: Csa Images, Archive

A 60-year-old Saudi woman was executed last week and the beheading was reportedly done in "three stages" so that it could be slow and painful to maximise punishment corresponding with the severity of her crime. In a world where killers, rapists, swindlers and other criminals roam free, this woman lost her life over a crime that is mother's milk to many criminals in many countries. Amina bint Abdel Halim Nassar died a grisly death for practicing witchcraft and sorcery.
What exactly was the nature of her crime? When the authorities searched her home they found a book about witchcraft, 35 vials and glass bottles full of strange potions that were used to perform the tricks of her trade. Amina feigned to have the healing power and then sold a vial and three bottles to each patient for $400. Nobody died because of her spurious medicine. No case of aggravation has been reported due to her deceptive treatment. No report of anybody being cured by her shamanistic method of medicine either. We do not even know if any of the disgruntled patients complained to the authorities after they found out she had duped them.
But the Saudi authorities found out anyway, and they found out she was taking advantage of gullible people. By god that happens to people in this country everyday! Doctors and hospitals regularly swindle their patients. Wrong diagnosis and wrong treatment often create complications that make patients suffer immensely more than their actual illness. Many patients also die because their doctors are grossly negligent.
Whether Amina was guilty or not is not the question. It isn't even the question of right or wrong. She was mis-selling her services, thus practicing fraud on her patients at best. If that is wrong and wrong that must be, then what about millions of others who are doing the same thing? What about politicians who never keep their election promises? What about lawyers who give false hope to their clients? What about businessmen who adulterate food or sell inferior products to credulous consumers?
This is the time to invoke Fyodor Dostoevsky, who writes in Crime and Punishment: "If he has a conscience he will suffer for his mistake. That will be punishment as well as the prison." That Amina had a weak or almost no conscience was obvious from her crime. She knew she was selling smoke to others to make money. She was lying, pretending and cheating helpless people who were desperate enough to fall for her gimmicks. The walls of the prison inside her weren't strong enough to restrain the scurrilous escapades of her dubious schemes.
Still, in any country other than her ultra-religious motherland, Amina would have lived. She probably would have been even licensed to practice her black art to professionally deceive people who would like to be deceived. Magicians do that all the time to their audiences, who come ready to see nothing but illusions. Bankers and insurance agents also do that, creating smokescreens that hide their charges and unscrupulous intentions.
So the book, the vials and the potions that were found in Amina's home come in varieties in different and even legitimate forms. The hocus-pocus, the monkey business, the treachery, lies and deception are common in today's world, and we don't have to go beyond our stock market to find proof. The poor woman got beheaded for charging $400 from a patient, but Tk.200 billion vanished from our stock market and not a single head has rolled till today.
Amulets, talismans, potions, charms, spells, exorcism, witchcraft, oracles, palmistry and fortune telling are forbidden because these involve the worship of Satan and establishment of "partners" placed beside God. Roughly 600 years ago a saintly man named Thomas More was tried for treason and beheaded. The real story was that More had refused to uphold King Henry VIII's annulment of his marriage from Catherine and to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn as the new Queen of England.
English philosopher Jeremy Bentham points out: "All punishment is mischief. All punishment in itself is evil." Crime and punishment have an uneasy balance because punishment of criminals can also criminalise punishment. There are many examples of innocent people rotting in prisons. Fall guys get death sentences, but foul men walk free.
Life is unfair and last week it was proved again in Saudi Arabia. The execution itself was an act of sorcery written in blood when truth must have vanished in the vanity of lies. I know, because there are many people who should have died before Amina Nassar if her execution was justified.

The writer is the Editor, First News, and an opinion writer for The Daily Star.
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