Over the past two years, agents of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Madina have been able to arrest more than 100 male and female sorcerers. In their most recent raids, they arrested an Arab expatriate who practiced witchcraft and sorcery under the cover of folk treatments, which he named as “mind cures”. He convinced his clients into believing that he had the ability to cure incurable diseases. In order to procure wealthy clients he set himself up at a luxury hotel in the downtown area and promoted himself as an indigenous medicine man. The Commission branch in Madina received a tip from a visiting European physician who was staying at the hotel. He told the commission about a suspicious person describing himself as a pious man renouncing worldly pleasure. The sorcerer had converted his hotel room into a makeshift clinic, according to the European physician who succeeded in befriending the sorcerer who was very wary of strangers. According to the physician the sorcerer was originally Christian, despite his claim of having converted to Islam recently. In addition to misleading people the sorcerer was not a legal resident of the Kingdom. The sorcerer claimed to be able to use several metaphysical devices such as angels, demons and genies in order to solve his patient's problems. Inside his room several talismans, movies, aphrodisiacs and contraceptives were found in the hotel. As well as messages he claimed were sent to his patients from Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) Commenting on the incident, Sheikh Abdulrahman Al-Mutairi, Head of the Anti-Sorcery Center in Madina, said that many swindlers and sorcerers operate under the cover of religious spells to protect against disease and evil eyes. He cautioned against trusting these swindlers, particularly those who operate without a license. Al-Mutairi also indicated that many reports are received by the victims of these individuals and asked all those who wish to file complaints to call the cell number 0568091667 or to send a fax to the number 8362261. Aref Al-Harbi, social worker at Taibah University, also cautioned against dealing with unknown individuals who claim to have extraordinary abilities in using folk medicine to cure the incurable: “Many people think that these sorcerers have solutions for their psychological, health and social problems and that they can only succeed with their help. The end result is that they become ensnared and fall prey to these individuals, losing both time and money,” he said. Al-Harbi also said that Madina attracts thousands of visitors of various nationalities each year and is therefore the preferred destination of sorcerers. An unidentified source at the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice quoted an individual as saying that he became a “toy in the hands of his wife” and that he suspects she practices witchcraft against him. Acting on the report, the Commission agents searched the man's house and found the head of a sheep buried in the backyard. The wife confessed to seeking help from a sorcerer to prevent her husband from remarrying. - Okaz __
