Boy's Eyes Plucked Out in Witchcraft Ceremony

Witchcraft is a real problem in Africa - and in two ways. Much of the time, the problem lies with those who fear witchcraft and accuse innocent people of being witches - sometimes resulting in mobs attacking and killing women or the elderly. Sometimes, though, people who are actually trying to practice witchcraft visit their own horrors on the innocent.

The Age reports on four men in Nigeria who have been charged with plucking out the eyes of a 13-year-old boy for use in a witchcraft ceremony:

Police suspect the attack was commissioned by one of the defendants to make a charm believed to make people invisible. The case will be heard by an Islamic court in Bauchi on February 18, the News Agency of Nigeria said.

An Islamic court will hear the case because the crime was committed in the eastern state of Bauchi, a predominantly Muslim state. If found guilty, one possible sentence for the men could be to have their own eyes plucked out - a literal case of an "eye for an eye." In my opinion, that would mean that a crime committed because of barbaric superstition would be dealt with via a barbaric religious punishment - which really makes one wonder about the clarity of boundaries between religion and superstition.

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