Let’s Hear It For The Middle Ages
McClatchy has a nice little piece: Coffee grounds brewed trouble for Israeli fortuneteller
This year, Kuma became one of the few people ever to be charged in Israel with practicing magic, a unique crime punishable by up to five years in jail.
In short, Kuma was the target of a modern-day witchhunt.
…
Kuma’s transgression is something known to its practitioners as tasseography. Put more simply, it is the ancient art of overturning a coffee cup — usually a demitasse used for Turkish coffee — and looking for answers in the patterns left behind by the grounds.
And that, under Israeli law, can be grounds to charge someone with illegally practicing magic.
“It’s against the law to be a fortuneteller,” said Ofer Almog, a Tel Aviv attorney who represented Kuma and has become something of a specialist in defending accused witches.
The law, said Almog, is vague and imprecise: It is OK to offer advice based on tarot cards and the stars. But not coffee grounds.
Well obviously the Tarot and Astrology are based on scientific principles, and coffee grounds aren’t. Actually, it’s just another reminder that like Saudi Arabia, the laws in Israel are based on religion. They are toned down a bit as the ultra Orthodox are not allowed to stone anyone to death under normal circumstances, while the Saudis still lop off heads in the public square. It’s a “kinder, gentler” theocracy.
2 comments
And these are the guys who are running our country’s foreign policy. Sigh.
As long as it’s based on scientific principles – like the Kabala.