Back to the Middle Ages: Iran’s baptists treat coronavirus sufferers with holy soil

Islam Mohammed

In light of the spread of coronavirus among Iranians, the Shiite clerics, who have controlled the country’s power for more than 40 years, resort to tricks to mislead the simple people with their extraordinary abilities to heal the sick and revive those nearing death, without any fear of conscience or morals, and without any scientific or even legal support.

With the emergence of coronavirus, some of the simple people resorted to the generalized Shiite clergy, to use their alleged dignities to stop the spread of the disease, and they were quick to fabricate shocking treatments that may have caused the death of these patients, who relied on these prescriptions instead of medication from the disease.

Some of the generalists, Murtaza Kohnsal, resorted to the trick of pouring essential oils into the noses of patients who face breathing problems, under the pretext that these oils belong to the Prophet (peace and blessings of God be upon him) personally, and that this falls within Islamic medicine.

While the Iranian Revolutionary Guard militia has assumed responsibility for fighting the virus instead of the Ministry of Health, as a group known as the jihadi presence whose members belong to the Revolutionary Guard’s Basij militia, launches a campaign to pass through hospitals in the capital, Tehran, to present what they said are sacred dust to those infected with the virus.

This campaign has been documented in videos spread on social media, reminiscent of old scenes that erupted several centuries ago when European clerics in theocratic countries had a monopoly on treating patients and preventing doctors from doing so.

In parallel, the generalized people exerted pressure against the specialized executive agencies, which prevented them from imposing a quarantine on the city of Qom because it is sacred in the Shiite doctrine, until this led to the spread of the disease in all parts of the country starting from Qom, which was the first city in which the epidemic appeared.

Indeed, with the widespread outbreak of the disease, the authorities were forced to close some shrines, but the crowds stormed these places to open them in the cities of Qom and Mashhad, such as the shrine of Imam Ali al-Rida and the shrine of Fatima al-Masumah.

It should be noted that the member of the National CoronaVirus Center, Hamid Suri, announced that nearly half a million citizens were infected in the country, in light of the categorical rejection by the Parliament of a draft law to suspend work throughout the country for a month, and impose a complete quarantine.

The state has resorted to primitive methods to warn people of the dangers of the deadly virus and intimidate them from going down the streets. Activists circulated on social media, a video clip of people dressed in black uniforms covering their faces and floating around the streets of Iran, in a surreal scene closer to the Middle Ages than to the present era.