Saudi Arabia: A beacon of hope

Have you ever read a headline that made you chuckle? Ever read an article and feel really good afterwords? Like the world really isn't a giant crater of shit and stupidity and the faster its immune system flushes all of mankind out the better?

This is not one of those stories.

A Lebanese man who hosted a popular TV show where he gave callers advice and sometimes predicted the future was sentenced to death by a court in Saudi Arabia last month. His charge? Sorcery.
...
Sibat confessed to Saudi authorities that he consulted spirits to predict the future. But the authorities didn't release him. Instead, they brought him to a TV studio and told him to confess again. The conversation was broadcast on a Saudi program about religion.

"How do you rate yourself among magicians?" an interviewer asked Sibat. "What?" said Sibat, clearly nervous. "I have failed. I confess in front of God."

Sibat was then tried in court, and the confession was used against him. He was sentenced to death on Nov. 9. Saudi justice officials would not respond to several requests for comment about his case.

Well that is just fucking marvelous. Not only is it frowned upon to practice sorcery or witchcraft in Saudi Arabia, easily a topper on the "top countries with the highest concentration of crazy irrational religious people per square mile" charts, but now you can get your ass killed by doing such harmful, Satanic things like predicting the future.

But then again, if you told me this kind of stuff was going down in a small town in Utah somewhere, I would believe you. So I guess we should tip our hats to the Saudi government for being that crazy that they'll at least own their shit on this issue. Now if only they could figure out what to do with all of those goddamn Twihards...