MAKKAH, 21 January 2007 — Members of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice conducted a sting operation in the holy city and netted an expatriate man who was allegedly exploiting people’s superstitions to sell them charms he claimed were magical.
The alleged charlatan’s victims were mostly illiterate laborers seeking magical love potions and evil eye hexes.
The sting operation involved a woman who pretended to be a customer desperate for strengthening her husband’s love for her to keep him from marrying a second wife. The man asked for a SR12,000 fee. The woman made an installment on the payment with money provided by the vice squad to catch the man in the act. The man also asked that the woman provide a pair of her husband’s underwear and other items.
The woman then said her husband won’t let her leave the house, and she convinced the man to come to her house to complete his magical spell. He arrived at the house with drawn symbols, incense and ostrich eggs.
He began making incantations and asked the woman to break open the eggs and to burn some wooden statues he produced from his pockets. He instructed the woman to place the ashes of the burned talismans in the four corners of the room. As he continued with his elaborate ruse, members of the vice patrol swooped in to arrest the man.
The con man told Arab News, which was present at the time of the arrest, that he earned SR40,000 a month from his practice. He said that most of his customers were women and that his ability to quote extensively from the Holy Qur’an impressed his clients. If convicted, the man might be able to impress his cellmates with the same.
