From Ken Layne's Weblog

[Caius Marcius]

Thought this might be of interest:

   - CMC

Thursday, November 29, 2001 

The latest from Our Friends the Saudis: 
A few days later, on November 18, Crown Prince Abd Al-'Aziz called 
another meeting, this time with top officials in the Defense and 
Intelligence Ministry .... 

The Crown Prince said: "I wish to remind you of the unjust attack 
being waged these days by the foreign media against the Saudi 
kingdom. I mean foreign papers, and you know who is behind them ...." 

"These papers, behind which stands 'you-know-who,' criticize your 
religion, criticize the things most precious to you, your faith and 
your holy scriptures ...."

You-know-who? 

This is getting creepy. 

I direct you to Chapter Three of "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of 
Azkaban," when Harry learns about Sirius Black, the crazed killer who 
escaped the Prison for Bad Wizards. (If you've got the American 
paperback edition, start at the end of Page 38.) 

Stan swiveled in his armchair, his hands on the back, the better to 
look at Harry. 

"Black woz a big supperter of You-Knoo-'Oo," he said. 

"What, Voldemort?" said Harry, without thinking. 

Even Stan's pimples went white; Ern jerked the steering wheel so hard 
that a whole farmhouse had to jump aside to avoid the bus. 

"You outta your tree?" yelped Stan. "'Choo say 'is name for?" 

"Sorry," said Harry hastily. "Sorry, I -- I forgot--" 

"Forget!" said Stan weakly. "Blimey, my 'eart's goin' that fast ..." 

"So -- so Black was a supporter of You-Know-Who?" 

The House of Saud thinks Lord Voldemort -- a very evil wizard from a 
children's book -- is a real person. And he runs the American media. 

(I mean, the Prince wouldn't be so goddamned stupid to use that 
old "Jews control the media," would he? It's going to be chaos when 
that foul crew is finally taken out, but I'm going to enjoy every 
minute of it.) 

 http://www.kenlayne.com


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In spite of Layne's amusing conceit, it is likely that neither our 
hero nor his chief adversary are very popular with the Saudi regime. 
The Saudis executed a man last year for the crime of sorcery.  See 
the Human Rights Watch site:

http://www.hrw.org/wr2k1/mideast/saudi.html

And from the Arabic News

Magic is widely believed in and sometimes practiced [in Saudi 
Arabia], often in the form of fortune-telling and swindles. However, 
under Shariaa [Islamic Law] the practice of magic is regarded as the 
worst form of polytheism, an offense for which no repentance is 
accepted, and which is punishable by death. There are an unknown 
number of detainees held in prison on the charge of "sorcery," or the 
practice of "black magic" or "witchcraft." In a few cases, self-
proclaimed "miracle workers" have been executed for sorcery involving 
physical harm or apostasy.

http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/010310/2001031043.html

  - CMC