Saudi magician 'card tricks' prominent scholar

A well-known Saudi illusionist used his recent visit to Dubai to perform a playing cards trick on a prominent Muslim scholar from the Gulf Kingdom despite the Sheikh’s repeated criticism of sorcery as against Islam.

A Saudi newspaper ran a two-minute YouTube film showing Ahmed Al Bayed, one of the best known illusionists in the Middle East, doing the cards trick during a ride in Dubai’s metro, causing the surprised Sheikh Mohammed Al Arifi to laugh and to implicitly acknowledge Al Bayed’s magic skills.

At one point, the Sheikh was seen jokingly grabbing Al Bayed’s neck as if to say he was puzzled by the trick and the magician’s capability.

“It was a funny situation in Dubai where Al Bayed demonstrated his skills to Sheikh Al Arifi,” the Arabic language daily Sharq said.

Al Bayed, born in the western Saudi Red Sea port of Jeddah in 1978, is the first Middle Eastern illusionist.  His father Saleh, a Saudi business man, owns the agency of Swarovski Crystals in Saudi Arabia and many other agencies.

Ahmed Al Bayed started his passion with magic and illusions at the age of 5, when his grandfather taught him a small trick.

In 2010, Al-Bayed planned to make one of Egypt’s three pyramids disappear but the show was cancelled for political reasons. 

https://youtu.be/5c-UWuBkpes

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