Torquemada"s Robes

" To don the robes of Torquemada, to resurrect the Inquisition,
And in that tortured subtle manner inflict questions within questions,
within questions.
Looking in shades of green through shades of blue;
I trust you trusting me to mistrust you."

Fish, Marillion, Emerald Lies


Saudi Arabia is a place our politicians try to spin as an important trade partner but I am not convinced actually I think they are a people ruled by a bunch of authoritarian pricks in cohorts with a another bunch of religious zealots. Today the BBC exposed the price of witchcraft and sorcery


" A Saudi woman has been executed for practising "witchcraft and sorcery", the country's interior ministry says.
A statement published by the state news agency said Amina bint Abdul Halim bin Salem Nasser was beheaded on Monday in the northern province of Jawf.
The ministry gave no further details of the charges which the woman faced.
The woman was the second person to be executed for witchcraft in Saudi Arabia this year. A Sudanese man was executed in September."

I hate capital punishment and how ever much I wish Anders Behring Brevick had the courage to go up against armed police in Norway, he was a coward who killed unarmed kids. That kind of makes me wonder about his insanity defence but then that is his lawyers not him I am guessing.


" BBC regionalist analyst Sebastian Usher says the interior ministry stated that the verdict against Ms Nasser was upheld by Saudi Arabia's highest courts, but it did not give specific details of the charges.


The London-based newspaper, al-Hayat, quoted a member of the religious police as saying that she was in her 60s and had tricked people into giving her money, claiming that she could cure their illnesses.
Our correspondent said she was arrested in April 2009."


Well if that is the case and I do not accept it on the testimony above an anonymous " religious policeman " then one might have thought some sort of fraud conviction would be appropriate. Incidental I can see no difference between the belief in Allah and the belief that a someone can cure you of illness by witchcraft.


" A Sudanese man was executed in September on similar charges, despite calls led by Amnesty for his release.
In 2007, an Egyptian national was beheaded for allegedly casting spells to try to separate a married couple.
Last year, a Lebanese man facing the death penalty on charges of sorcery, relating to a fortune-telling television programme he presented, was freed after the Saudi Supreme Court decreed that his actions had not harmed anyone.
Amnesty says that Saudi Arabia does not actually define sorcery as a capital offence. However, some of its conservative clerics have urged the strongest possible punishments against fortune-tellers and faith healers as a threat to Islam. "


Saudi Arabia reminds me of apartheid South Africa. This is the politics of hate, this is something we should not agree to, it is time to say good by to Saudi Arabia and you can't buy in New Zealand and  make it fucking clear to them if a NZ subject ( actually I would go further and include Australia, UK, US or Canada ) is ever included in there murderous plans then trey will be boycotted and if any other nations wants to join the core Commonwealth countries you are welcome.

Yes I know that America isn't part of the Commonwealth but it is part of Trotters  fist and just sometimes the fist should punch.

Hat Tip No Right Turn