Skip to main content.
Religion News Blog is a non-profit service providing academics, religion professionals and other researchers with religion & cult news
ReligionNewsBlog

Religion news articles about religious cults, sects, world religions, and related issues

Navigation:
Home | Site Menu | About RNB | RNB Store | Cult FAQ | Cult Experts | Apologetics Index | Cult Information Search Engine
A Random Image
More articles about: Witchcraft:

Tanzania orders crackdown on witchcraft-related crime

AFP (France), via the Philippine Daily Inquirer
Jan. 1, 2008
newsinfo.inquirer.net

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Wednesday January 2, 2008

DAR ES SALAAM — Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete in his New Year address ordered a crackdown on what he said was a growing number of murders and rapes linked to witchcraft beliefs.

Witchcraft/Wicca

Witchcraft, or Wicca, is a form of neo-Paganism. It is officially recognized as a religion by the U.S. government.

This is a diverse movement that knows no central authority. Practitioners do not all have the same views, beliefs and practices.

While all witches are pagans, not all pagans are witches. Likewise, while all Wiccans are witches, not all witches are Wiccans.

Note: The Witchcraft news tracker includes news items about a wide variety of diverse movements reported in the media as ‘witchcraft.’ It also includes news articles on the plight of alleged witches.

“As much as many cases of rape are associated with moral decay, there is evidence that some traders nurse stupid beliefs that having sexual intercourse with infants can bring them fortune,” he said late Monday.

“There are also those who believe that possession of some organs of infants and albinos can turn them rich,” he added, ordering the police to come down hard out on such practices.

According to Kikwete, rape cases doubled to around 8,000 in 2007 from 3,946 nationwide the previous year, while the number of murders reported in the east African nation also rose from 2,309 to 3,144 over the same period.

Tanzania’s Albino society recently complained that albinos were being targeted by some witch-doctors, following a string of murders.

In 2007, police reported several cases of people exhuming the freshly-buried bodies of infants to remove organs, in many cases the genitals, to make potions used in witchcraft rituals.

Bookmark share or email this Religion News Blog page Bookmark, Share, or Email This Page

 

Read another article Read Another Article

Tags and keywords for this Apologetics Index entry Related News Articles

arrow Topic(s): Witchcraft
arrow

RSS Feed Subscribe to Religion News Blog updates

Religion News Find Related Information

Use our custom search engines to find additional research resources on religions and cults:
arrow ApologeticsSearch.com: Search for apologetics articles, books, videos, and other research resources across 135 Christian apologetics websites and blogs.
arrow CounterCultSearch.com: Search for information about (religious) cults, cult-like organizations, and cults experts -- as well as paranormal-, New Age, and pseudoscientific claims -- across 260+ websites, blogs and forums dedicated to cult research, spiritual abuse, ex-cult counseling & support.

Religion News Find Related Religion & Spirituality Books at Amazon.com

Religion News Possibly related... or Most Popular Religion News Articles

Religion News Search Search Religion News Blog