An Iranian cleric told his followers that the COVID-19 vaccination turns people into “homosexuals,” who are punished with death in Iran.
Ayatollah Abbas Tabrizian made outrageous statements on the social networking platform Telegram on Tuesday, according to the Jerusalem Post.
“Do not approach those who had the COVID vaccine,” the radical Islamist wrote to his nearly 210,000 followers. “They became gay.”
Tabrizian, who lives in the religious capital Qom and whose followers call him an ayatollah, has a history of promoting bigotry and false information about Western medicine.
Last year, the totalitarian burned Harrison’s “Handbook of Medicine” in a video recorded ceremony, claiming that “Islamic medicine” made these books “irrelevant”, according to Radio Farda, a Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty broadcasting service.
“Like other clerics in the regime, Tabrizian reports all the shortcomings [shortcomings] to sexuality, “Iranian dissident Sheina Vojoudi told the Jerusalem Post.
“Clerics in Iran suffer from a lack of knowledge and humanity. In fact, his purpose in spreading nonsense is to try to scare people [out] to be vaccinated, while the regime leader and other officials received Pfizer and do not offer people the excuse that they do not trust the West.
A leading gay rights lawyer told the Israeli newspaper that the scare tactics of many Iranian religious and political leaders often combine ignorance and hatred.
“He is demonizing both the vaccination program and LGBT + people without a piece of evidence,” said Peter Tatchell.
“Seeking to scare the public from getting vaccinated against COVID-19, it fuels the pandemic and puts lives in danger,” Tatchell added.
Same-sex sexual activity is punishable by execution in Iran, and thousands of homosexuals have been killed since the 1979 Iranian revolution, according to the Israeli newspaper.
In 2019, an Iranian foreign minister defended those atrocities against the German public broadcasting network.
“Our society has moral principles. And we live according to these principles. These are moral principles about human behavior in general. And that means the law is obeyed and the law is obeyed, “Mohammed Javad Zarif told Deutsche Welle.
In 2018 and 2019, Iran executed at least nine children, as the US imposed sanctions after accusing the country of violating a 2015 nuclear deal.