Health Ministry Criticizes Flogging Sentence for Three Doctors Following Book-Burning Cleric’s Complaint
Kianush Jahanpoor, spokesperson for Iran’s Ministry of Health, in response to a complaint by book-burning cleric that resulted in three doctors being sentenced to 60 lashes each, called on the judiciary to fulfill its legal role in this case.
Mr. Jahanpoor, referring to Ibrahim Raeisi’s critical stance, head of the judiciary, regarding Abbas Tabrizian’s act of burning Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, a reference book for medical education, stated on behalf of the Tehran Medical Organization that the flogging sentence against these three doctors is “preliminary and not final.”
His remarks came after Tabrizian’s Telegram channel, a cleric who calls himself the “father of Islamic medicine” and recently burned the Harrison medical textbook on camera, published an image of the verdict issued by Branch 136 of the Mashhad Criminal Court of First Instance.
In this image, three doctors were sentenced to 60 lashes each on his complaint under the charge of “insulting through cyberspace.”
Tabrizian’s channel described these three doctors as “disrespectful” and wrote that they were complained against because “we no longer witness the repetition of such messages regarding the subject of Islamic medicine.”
The Health Ministry spokesperson said that the publication of this verdict, given that it is not final, is “a crime” and “the matter is so clear that it should not be pursued with such sentences.”
Mr. Jahanpoor, stating that “with this scene-making and incitement, this person’s credibility will no longer hold,” described Tabrizian’s approach as “superficial and ignorant,” saying that he “acts against the country’s public health.”
Due to what he called Tabrizian’s and people with similar thinking “interference” in medical treatment, he called on the judiciary to “fulfill its role.”
Another report also indicates that Abbas Kamyabi, head of the Iranian General Practitioners Association, announced the association’s complaint against Abbas Tabrizian.
According to Mr. Kamyabi, “making people pessimistic about medical knowledge, even if it only affects one person and prevents them from pursuing treatment, is considered a threat to community health and warrants legal action.”
In recent days, news of Abbas Tabrizian’s arrest had circulated on social media, which the Mizan news agency, citing the Special Prosecution for the Clergy, denied, stating that this cleric currently resides in the city of Najaf.
The ISNA news agency also in an article titled “Who is Tabrizian and Why Did He Burn Harrison,” wrote about Abbas Tabrizian, who studied at the Najaf Seminary and also teaches advanced Islamic jurisprudence, believes: “Today’s medical science is lies and deception, and diseases should be treated by extracting methods from the Quran and Hadith.”
According to this report, “in 1396 [2017], the Ministry of Health considered his activities illegal, and Tabrizian told his opponents to take the same chemical drugs, because according to him, taking those drugs will destroy them faster.”
Abbas Tabrizian, about two weeks ago, in front of his supporters, burned Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, one of the recognized medical textbooks, and published a video of this act on social networks.
Burning this medical reference book triggered widespread reactions to the extent that even the management of seminaries and a number of clerics reacted and called this act “a reprehensible, ignorant, and unjust action.”
Source: Radio Farda
