As every high-school student who has read The Crucible knows, witches were executed in Massachusetts as late as 1692

National Review, March 10, 2008

As every high-school student who has read The Crucible knows, witches were executed in Massachusetts as late as 1692. But colonial Massachusetts had politics, law, public opinion, and intellectual inquiry, if not full freedom of thought: social forces that helped turn the tide against witchcraft prosecutions when the frenzy had worn off.

What does Saudi Arabia have, and can it save Fawza Falih--an illiterate woman accused of witchcraft for, among other things, causing one of her accusers to become impotent? Miss Falih was arrested by religious police in 2005 and forced to sign a confession she could not read. She was sentenced to be beheaded, reprieved, then sentenced again in the name of "public interest." The world's interest in her case might save her; Human Rights Watch has appealed to King Abdullah to intercede. But Saudi Arabia continues its barbarous ways, making life wretched for who knows how many of its subjects.