http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2009/11/saudi-arabia-kingdom-steps-up-hunt-for-witches-and-black-magicians-.html

Fanatics!

Witchhunts are actually pretty common in other parts of the world. I am glad I live here.

Geez, I guess I am guilty of taking my freedom for granted until I read something like this!  Can you imagine living in a country like that?!

Alot of those countries in the mid east are not known for their religious freedoms and women's rights.
Yes, Acasia, I also feel lucky to live where I do.

Not exactly filled with compassion and understanding for others in these places are they?

That's horrible! I wish there was some way to stop that somehow. They aren't doing anything wrong!

I think the only thing we can do right now is pray, and let your voice be heard through either amnesty international or the human rights commission.  I guess I'm more concerned about women's rights in these countries.  Women are not considered humans, only property, and their owners/husbands can do whatever they  like to these women.  And these women, they don't know better.  They're uneducated, and their husbands certainly aren't going to tell them that women of other countries have rights, freedoms.  We're the bad guys.  I could go on and on...

Some of the women are educated, but usually only those who are members of the upper class in those countries. For a class a couple years ago, I watched an episode of Oprah, where she had one of these highborne women on, whose message was that Americans have it all wrong about the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia. She contested that women are educated and treated very well by their men. Of course, this woman wasn't exactly representative of the average Saudi woman. Its entirely possible that she was told to say those things by officials in her government.

Day in and day out I see on tv and hear about feminists in this country who are fighting for equal rights, equal pay, abortion, etc.. When I look at what is happening in other countries, I don't feel inferior in my own country at all.

As for witchcraft, dream on. There was a time in which many of the scientific advances came from the same minds who were practicing some form of magic - esp. in the middle east. There's a rich tradition of magic in the middle east, that goes back long before America had ever been discovered (by the Italians or the Scandinavians). But sadly those days are gone. Now the greatest advancement to come out of that region are tactics for keeping a population subdued by an oppressive theocratic government. Some people try to make the case that the US is the same way with its mix of religion and politics, but I don't recall the last time a witch was put to death in the US, and it made the news in a foreign country.  Everyone was guilty of this at some point. Witch trials in colonial America, and in England, France, Germany. But its been a while since that has happened. Whereas in Africa and the Middle East, these types of things have occurred much more recently.