A cleric in the Iranian regime told his followers that the COVID-19 vaccination turns people into “homosexuals,” which can be punishable by death in Iran.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Ayatollah Abbas Tabrizian made the scandalous allegations on Tuesday on social media platform Telegram.
“Don’t get close to those who have had the COVID vaccine,” the radical Islamist wrote to his nearly 210,000 followers. “They have become homosexuals.”
Tabrizian, who lives in the religious capital of Qom and whose followers call him Ayatollah, has a history of promoting bigotry and false information about Western medicine.
Last year, the totalitarian “Harrison’s Manual of Medicine” burned into one filmed ceremony, alleging that “Islamic medicine” had made such books “irrelevant,” said Radio Farda, a broadcaster of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.
“Like other clergy in the regime, Tabrizian also tells all the shortages [shortcomings] sexuality, ”Iranian dissident Sheina Vojoudi told the Jerusalem Post.
“The clergy in Iran suffer from a lack of knowledge and humanity. His goal of spreading nonsense is actually trying to scare people [out] to get vaccinated, while the regime’s leader and other officials have gotten Pfizer, and they’re not offering it to the people with the excuse that they don’t trust the West. “
A prominent gay rights advocate 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 any evidence,” said Peter Tatchell reportedly.
By trying to scare the public not to get vaccinated against COVID-19, he is fueling the pandemic and putting lives at risk, Tatchell added.
Same-sex sexual activity is punishable by execution in Iran, and thousands of gays have been executed since the Iranian revolution in 1979, according to the Israeli newspaper.
In 2019, an Iranian foreign minister defended these atrocities against the German public broadcaster.
“Our society has moral principles. And we live by these principles. These are moral principles related to people’s behavior in general. And that means that the law is respected and the law is enforced, ”Mohammed Javad Zarif told Deutsche Welle.
In 2018 and 2019, Iran executed at least nine children as the US raised sanctions after it was accused of violating a 2015 nuclear deal.