MAKKAH, 16 April 2007 — The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice recently arrested a 40-year-old African woman who was dabbling in the dark art of magic and charging people thousands of riyals for her services.

Commission members managed to arrest the woman red-handed using an undercover commission member, who approached the “witch” claiming she needed help to stop her husband from marrying another woman.

The witch told her that she could cast a spell to cause hatred between the man and his proposed second wife and instead make him love her for only SR2,000. She added that she also needed money to buy certain herbs for the spell.

“Having received SR2,000, the African woman asked the undercover commission member her mother-in-law’s name and to bring an unwashed shirt carrying her husband’s sweat,” said a commission member.

“On the second day the woman came with all the things she was asked for. The witch incensed her with some herbs and asked her to pay another SR1,000. She also told her that the spell would make her husband submissive to her order and would make him do anything that she asks for,” he added. It was then that a group of commission members raided the woman’s home and arrested her holding a packet of incense known as “Ain Al-Afrit” (The Eye of the Devil).

“She confessed that she had been practicing magic for a long time and that she had earned a lot of money. She would manipulate naive women. We asked her why she had gone into this type of business. She said she was poor and was in need of money,” said the commission member, adding that the woman was remorseful and promised not to delve in magic again.

Sheikh Ahmad ibn Kasim Al-Ghamdi, head of the commission in Makkah, said, “We carry out a lot of work to overcome this problem, which of late has become rampant among people. I advise people to stick to Islamic principles and give up hope in such things. Islam has forbidden such things and considers magic to be a type of polytheism.”

Al-Ghamdi added that members of the public should report on people practicing magic.

Meanwhile, Sheikh Suliman Al-Tuwaijri, head of the commission in Madinah, has released statistics relating to the commission’s work during the Islamic year of 1427H in the holy city.

In the previous year, 22,950 people were caught and 22,230 people were fined. This is a one percent increase over the statistics for the year 1426H.

Only five percent of crimes were reported to the authorities. The commission resolved 95 percent of the cases through advice and consolation.

There were 15,134 complaints about people not praying, working during prayer times, and unnecessarily breaking fasts during the month of Ramadan. There were 69 reported cases of people practicing magic and involving themselves in polytheism. In addition, there were 2,510 cases relating to illicit relationships between men and women, including molestation and other moral issues.

The Madinah branch of the commission also held 150 activities in the form of seminars held at schools and governmental organizations. Five million pamphlets were also distributed.

The branch also held three programs aimed at the youth. These include a program entitled “Discover Your Own Happiness,” which was held during the summer and spring vacations and saw the participation of 60,000 youths.

The second program was entitled “Serving Haj and Umrah Visitors.” Two million educational packets were distributed among the pilgrims. The third program was entitled “Gifts for Haj, Umrah and Summer Travelers” and saw the distribution of 750,000 educational packets.

Al-Tuwaijri revealed that 375 employees received managerial training and many commission workers were sent to the Virtue Commission Faculty in Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah for higher education.

Another three batches of commission members have also been scheduled to attend similar courses this year. As part of their outreach programs, the commission received 680 visitors of whom most were students.