Middle East Focus: Dutch Witches Get Tax Breaks, Saudi Sorcerers Get Beheaded………..

Arabia Deserta

Dutch Witches Get Tax Breaks, Saudi Sorcerers Get Beheaded………..

“Hogwarts it may not be, but a school in the Netherlands provides tax-deductible course work on witchcraft. Margarita Rongen, the headmistress of Heksehoeve (Dutch for "witch farmhouse"), offers a yearlong curriculum in spell-casting, herbology, potions, and divination, among other classes. The class clearly has a large following: Rongen has received applications from as far away as Dubai. In a case brought before Dutch tax authorities in 2005 by pupil Maaike Buurman, it was ruled that because the course was used "to extend her professional knowledge" -- as a tax official put it to Reuters -- it was eligible for a tax write-off. Buurman argued she enrolled in the school to help her in teaching the history of the Middle Ages -- but of course, a witch would say that……..”

The Dutch give them tax breaks. In Saudi Arabia they get tried for witchcraft, sorcery and cavorting with the devil, then they get their heads chopped in a public square just before a Friday lunch. Everybody else’s lunch: ‘they’ won’t need lunch on that day or ever after, presumably.
Cheers
mhg

Mon Email