The law must take serious stand against witchcraft
KUWAIT CITY, Sept 20: Muslims believe in the existence of witchcraft and wizardry. They understand that these practices can be used to harm other people. Kuwait, as a Muslim country, has adopted many Islamic regulations which have been incorporated in its laws.
The Islamic Family Law is a good example of this. Unfortunately, when it comes to cases in which the litigants claim that the incident happened due to witchcraft; the law takes a quiet and ignorant stand, only to reject the claim later.
The law does not criminalize witchcraft and wizardry or even cover any issue related to these acts — an indirect way of saying it is legal to commit such acts. We hear from time to time or read in newspapers about the arrest of someone engaged in wizardry with a strange witchcraft item found in his possession. Yet, we have never heard or read anything about penalties, or at least, deporting them in case those involved are foreigners.
A murder case was a hot topic in the country a few years ago as it involved a daughter who killed her mother. The daughter fired a gun at the mother’s head while the latter was asleep. People who know the murderer claimed she was possessed by a demon due to witchcraft. Even when the Criminal Investigation Department dispatched its officers to search the house; they claimed to have seen witchcraft items, but none of those pieces of evidence were presented to the judge in court because there is no stipulation on criminalizing the acts of witchcraft and wizardry in the Criminal Law. The daughter was sentenced like any other murderer who committed the crime with full consciousness and will.
Witchcraft affects the will of a man and makes him unaware of what he is doing. A serious stand must be taken against witchcraft and wizardry; hence, the need for the law to include stipulations penalizing those proven to be involved in such acts.