“The more ignorant, reckless and thoughtless a doctor is, the higher his reputation”
-In Praise of Folly
Ayatollah Abbas Tabrizian, one of the famous Qom’s Islamic medicine experts, who was born and went to school in Najaf, Iraq, and now teaches jurisprudence in the seminary of that city, became famous last year because he set fire to Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine textbooks and released its video online and also prescribing Islamic methods for COVID-19 treatment, such as using “Imam Kazem medicine, Imam Reza comprehensive medicine, cupping, honey and black seed and putting cotton soaked in violet oil in the anus before sleep.”
Ayatollah Tabrizian sells his medicines in person and online. He runs several online stores and has a thriving business on Instagram and Telegram.
The Shiite cleric explained the outbreak of coronavirus in Qom, which was the primary hotspot and ground zero of the disease in Iran: “Qom, despite his sincerity and free treatment and a year of free medicine to the honorable people of Iran, harrassed Ayatollah Tabrizian, they said strange things, and this is God’s revenge that destroyed Qom!”
In May 2020, the same days that Khamenei saw jinns involved in the coronavirus epidemic, he delivered the seventh prayer of Sajjadiyeh to the people, planted a tree in front of IRIB cameras, and talked about the “so-called disease”, the Shiite Islamic doctors’ business in Qom was growing. One would say ginger, the other prescribed eating the prayer seal (mohr). One person drank camel urine and recommended it to the people as a religious remedy for COVID-19. He would record and release his drinking of camel urine online.
Ayatollah Tabrizian, who noticed the intense competition and increasing hands in the charlatanism market of religion, used his honorable Islamic position and declared: “Consumption of camel urine is recommended for patients in special and emergency situations and is not a general prescription for everyone. Also, the benefits and properties of camel urine are mentioned in many accredited academic articles that will be uploaded in the next posts, and these articles show that the use of camel urine has been proven medicinally and it is not strange. In the next posts, we will also introduce some articles about making chemical medicines from human feces to find out the truth about the pharmaceutical mafia, and understand what materials are prescribed in the form of tablets and capsules in beautiful packaging.”
Following the release of the video setting fire on “Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine”, which provoked protests from various segments of the population and the scientific community, the state-run media reported on the arrest and charges against Ayatollah Tabrizian. Mahmoud Khodadoost, former director general of the Ministry of Health, announced on January 27, 2020 that Ayatollah had been sentenced to three years in prison by the special court for the clergy. Also, according to the ruling of this court, all the centers under this great cleric’s supervision and his followers were to be sealed. Khodadoost’s claims were like an Islamic narrative. Ayatollah was never arrested and no serious judicial action was taken against him!
The Judiciary’s approach in dealing with the illegal and dangerous activities of Ayatollah Tabrizian, in the actions of former head of Judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, found a symbolic expression. “The Judiciary does not see any crime in this case to take action,” Larijani responded to then-Health Minister Ghazizadeh Hashemi, who asked why no one was protesting his activities.
The Judiciary support for Ayatollah Tabrizian during the presidency of Ibrahim Raisi not only did not decrease, but also intensified.
Ayatollah Tabrizian, on February 08, 2020, just a few days after setting fire to one of the most prestigious sources of modern medical education among his fans in front of camera, announced on his Telegram channel that Branch 136 of the 2nd Criminal Court of Mashhad, three doctors have been sentenced to 180 lashes, 60 lashes each, for “insulting (him) on social media.” This sentence was issued on December 31, 2019.
In the last case, Ayatollah Tabrizian summed up a strong mixture of anti-Semitism, homophobia, ignorance and conspiracy theories in a few lines and fed them to thousands of viewers of his Telegram channel:
“Try not to get close to people who are vaccinated, because according to a Rabbi, there’s a microchip inside the vaccines, which would cause genetic changed and transform human to a controllable robot. He will lose faith, ethics and decency genes, and according to the Rabbi’s admission, he will tend to have homosexual relations. And at the end, they will become dangerous beings. Proofs to follow.”
The state media try to portray the phenomenon of “Ayatollah Tabrizian” and “Islamic medicine” something contrary to the laws of the country and Islamic regime. But in fact, the “father of Islamic medicine” has received his license from the highest official of the system and has no worries about legal action or any other obstacle from the Islamic Republic:
Ayatollah Tabrizian, with his Islamic medicine activities and prescribing feces and urine as medicine to patients in order to alleviate the concerns of his leader, follows exactly Khamenei’s instructions in the fight against “bioterrorism”. Stupidity and charlatanism in the system of the Islamic Republic have ideological origins and pervade all government apparatuses. Talk of jinns and magic and superstitions have become common at the highest levels of the regime. Tabrizians is no exception. Is an institution. Legitimate and sanctioned (by “Supreme Leader”).
Translation of this article by Sahar.
