I am the vice president of the Oakland Magic Circle, the largest independent magic club west of the Mississippi. I recently sent the following e-mail to the other officers of my magic club.

In August 2014; 26 people were executed in Saudi Arabia. One of those 26 people was Mohammed bin Bakr al-Alawi, who was beheaded for ‘black magic sorcery.’ Evidence of his sorcery included ‘causing birds to appear.’ Causing birds to appear? So, how much would you charge to do a bird act in Saudi Arabia? (See photo below of Lance Burton doing his dove production act.) I don’t do tricks with birds, but I do a good ball vanish; however, it would probably be unwise for me to do it in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Gazette newspaper reported that in 2012, the government’s witch-hunting unit arrested 215 ‘magicians.”

Executions are depressingly common in Saudi Arabia, so common that cab drivers in Riyadh, the nation’s capital, refer to Deera Sqaure, where public beheadings take place, as ‘Chop Chop Square.’ Both men and women including citizens of foreign countries have been executed for sorcery and witchcraft. An Egyptian visiting Saudi Arabia was arrested, tried, and executed for casting a spell on a couple in an effort to break up their marriage. A man from Sudan was executed for making people sick using a talisman with Satanic powers. It seems hard to believe that things like this are still going on in the 21st Century, and in a large, rich, powerful country like Saudi Arabia.

Every American president in my lifetime has said that Saudi Arabia is an ‘ally’ of the United States and that the people who run their government are ‘our friends.’ When presidents say things like that, it reminds me of something that Harry Truman said. Truman said: “Always be sincere, even when you don’t mean it.”