Three medical doctors have been sentenced to flogging in Iran on charges of “insulting” a controversial cleric who denounces modern medicine and recently burned the world's leading internal medicine textbook in a viral video.

The doctors have been sentenced to 60 lashes each for “insulting” Abbas Tabrizian, a cleric who burned Harrison’s Manual of Medicine among his followers in a viral video in January.



Tabrizian – considered the “father of Islamic medicine” by his followers – is an advocate for treating patients using “Islamic medicine” rather than modern medicine.



“Islamic medicine” relies on the sayings of the Shia Imams to treat patients.



Tabrizian has written a number of books on Islamic medicine and runs an Islamic medicine center. The center’s website sells medicinal herbs, as well as products such as “Islamic soap” and “Islamic toothbrush.”



Powerful cleric Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi – reportedly an advocate for Islamic medicine and once considered to be a possible successor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei – died in 2018 due to trusting Islamic medicine, according to his son.



“The Islamic doctors told my father to not pay attention to what the modern doctors were saying about his health,” Ala Hashemi-Shahroudi said last December.



Iran’s highest authority Supreme Leader Khamenei is also believed to be an advocate for Islamic medicine.

Last Update: Wednesday, 20 May 2020 KSA 09:53 - GMT 06:53