1. Modern Witch Hunts and Religious Intolerance Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Name: Date:

2. Introduction Religious intolerance is the unwillingness to permit and accept religious practices and beliefs that disagree with one’s own. Witch hunting is the practice of searching for witches and evidence of witchcraft, frequently demanding mass hysteria or moral panic. Witch hunts and religious intolerance are common in several parts of the world specifically in Africa and New Guinea.

3. Witchcraft as a religion Witchcraft is the belief in magic spells, which exploits evil spirits or occult forces to develop unnatural effects. Therefore, witchcraft is a religion because it involves the belief in supernatural powers for divinatory, religious or medicinal purposes. Millions of people in Africa and in New Guinea believe that evil spirits and witches exist.

4. A Nigerian witch standing on a pot Retrieved from http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide- web/witchcraft-witches-coven-black-magic-south-africa

5. Intolerance towards witchcraft Most parts of west Africa use Islamic religious laws. Witchcraft is considered as a defilement of the Quran under the Sharia law. New Guinea is dominated by Christians with traditional doctrines, which are prejudicial to witchcraft. Some still worship ancestors. Any individual discovered to be a witch is either lynched by being stoned in public or being set on fire. Their land and property is then confiscated. The lucky ones who manage to escape sustain fatal injuries.

6. A witch being set on fire in New Guinea McGuirk, R. (2012). [Photograph] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/10/papua- new-guinea-witch-hunt-jealousy_n_3415565.html

7. Witch hunters in New Guinea O’Kelly, R. (2013). [Photograph] http://www.vice.com/read/papua-new-guinea- are-still-burning-witches-at-the-stake  Witch hunting is a religious intolerance because it does not permit the practice of witchcraft as a religion.

8. Reasons for witch hunts Witchcraft is often associated with diseases, misfortunes and death. People accused of witchcraft are mostly poor and deformed old women who stay alone. Witches are believed to fly, dance naked on graves and cemeteries at night, dig out corpses and feed on their flesh. Witches are also believed to feed on their own children and copulate with animals. Mob mentality

9. Conclusion  Witchcraft is a religion because it involves the belief in supernatural powers.  Religious intolerance is the act of barring other individuals from exercising their religion because it is different from one’s own.  Witch hunting is religious intolerance because it entails persecution of witches who believe in evil spirits as their divine beings.

10. Works Cited Globalpost. Weird Wide Web. 05 July 2011. 29 July 2013. Ledingham, Mark. "Witches are still killed in Africa." Aftenposten 24 July 2004. McGuirk, Rod. World. 10 June 2013. 29 July 2013. O'Kelly, Ronan. News. 29 May 2013. 29 July 2013.