A Rather Ordinary Case

Found Poem #10: A Rather Ordinary Case or Why I Don’t Trust the Interpreters of God’s Word

Convicted of sorcery
And sentenced to death,
Ali Hussain Sibat of Lebanon
Has been held
In a prison in Saudi Arabia,
For more than two years.

His head is
To be chopped off
By an executioner wielding
A long, curved sword.

His crime:
Manipulating spirits,
Predicting the future,
Concocting potions
And conjuring spells
On a call-in television show
On a Lebanese channel, Scheherazade.

He was arrested in a sting operation
Staged by the religious police —
Men with long beards and ankle-length gowns —
Who technically have no authority to arrest
But wield tremendous power
In this conservative kingdom.

He was jailed after agreeing
To give a woman a potion
So that her husband would divorce
A second wife.

Several times in recent months
Mr. Sibat’s wife and his four children
Were told he would be escorted
To a public square…
For his beheading.

There has been little public outcry in Saudi Arabia
Over the case —which is considered
Rather ordinary.

“The judges think they are
The interpreters of God’s word,
And this is the whole problem in Saudi Arabia,”
Said Ibrahim al-Mugaiteeb,
Director of Human Rights First Society,
An independent monitoring group in the kingdom.

Mr. Sibat had traveled to the kingdom
On a minor pilgrimage to the city of Mecca.


Source: The New York Times, April 25, 2010