Al-Jazeera has reported that Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood leader Sheik Abdul Majid al-Zindani has claimed to have obtained some kind of patent for his alleged cure for AIDS that was first announced in 2007. According to a MEMRI translation:
On September 21, 2012, Aljazeera.net reported that Yemeni preacher Sheikh ‘Abd Al-Majid Al-Zindani, who in 2004 was classified by the U.S. government as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist because of his loyalty to Osama bin Laden and his support of Al-Qaeda, had claimed to have obtained ‘accreditation for a patent’ for medication for treating AIDS from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a UN agency. It added that although the drug was ready for immediate production, Al-Zindani was ‘currently busy protecting his invention in 185 countries.’
The report noted that Al-Zindani presented himself as the first to claim to have invented a cure for AIDS, and that he attributed his success ‘firstly to the grace of Allah, in addition to his expertise in researching i’jaz [scientific signs], and his investigation of prophetic medicine.’ He said that he began researching AIDS medication 25 years ago, with the participation of the Commission on Scientific Signs in the Koran and the Sunnah in Saudi Arabia, where he worked, and that he continued his research at the Center for Prophetic Medicine of Al-Iman (‘Belief’) University in Sana’a, which he headed.
According to the report, Al-Zindani said he had ‘sent samples of the medicine to pharmaceutical factories in Germany, and that the special laboratory’s results of the last 23 [patients]who were checked reached him 12 days ago from a hospital in Jordan. [Moreover, he said that] he has a device which reveals whether there is even a single virus in the blood. The results that arrived from Jordan indicated that in six cases, the [viral count]was zero. In the others, there was a lessening of the viral percentage, and they need to continue treatment… [He added] that the Yemeni Health Ministry was taking blood samples from 10 patients from the two groups he had treated, and was sending them to Egypt, where they would be taken to laboratories [apparently in reference to NAMRU-3], which the World Health Organization considers the standard [in medical research]in the Middle East region.’
Al-Zindani previously discussed his AIDS cure, and his demand for money – not the removal of his U.S. terrorist designation – in return for it, on Al-Jazeera TV in January 2007 (click here to view this clip on MEMRI TV; for transcript, see below).
Following are excerpts from the September 21, 2012 interview with Al-Zindani, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV (via Youtube) (click here to view this clip on MEMRI TV)
Read the rest here.
Zindani is a leader of the Al-Islah Party in Yemen, identified by an Israeli research center as the Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen.
In addition to his leadership of the Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood, Zindani also has strong links to the global Muslim Brotherhood including serving on the board of global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi’s Union of Good Hamas fund-raising organization and his relationship to Muslim Brotherhood figure Zaghloul el-Naggar of Egypt. The connection with el-Naggar is based on both men’s position as leading exponents of the so-called “scientific basis of Islam.” A 2008 Jamestown Foundation report explains and notes al-Zindani’s claim of an AIDS cure:
Al-Zindani is also a leading exponent of the scientific basis for Islam, as outlined in various passages of the Quran that the sheikh interprets as descriptions of everything from black holes to photosynthesis. Last December, al-Zindani, a former pharmacist, claimed to have developed a cure for HIV/AIDS. Unlike other HIV/AIDS medicines, the sheikh’s discovery allegedly has no side effects while eliminating the disease in men, women and even fetuses. Al-Zindani asserts that he will reveal the herbal formula for “Eajaz-3” once a copyright has been obtained. Although the sheikh claims the inspiration of his creation “came from God,” no proof of the cure’s effectiveness has yet been presented (Yemen Observer, December 19, 2006). In the last few months, five Libyan children receiving treatment for HIV at al-Zindani’s al-Iman University have been deported in response to allegations of Libyan assistance to Shiite rebels in Yemen’s Sa’ada province (Yemen Observer, March 6; Terrorism Focus, February 20).
The U.S. Treasury Department designated Zindani as a terrorist in 2004, describing him as a “loyalist” and “spiritual advisor” to Osama Bin Laden. A 2007 Jamestown Foundation report further explained Zindani’s terrorist activities:
According to a statement from the U.S. Treasury Department, al-Zindani’s involvement with al-Qaeda includes recruiting, purchasing weapons and acting as a spiritual leader for the movement, as well as acting as a contact for Kurdish Iraq’s Ansar al-Islam (http://www.treasury.gov/press/releases/js1190.htm). The Yemen government has ignored appeals from Washington for the arrest of the sheikh and the seizure of his assets (Arab News, February 24, 2006). Al-Zindani was recently identified in a U.S. federal court as the coordinator of the October 2000 suicide attack in Aden harbor on the USS Cole. A two and a half year-old lawsuit filed in Virginia by the families of the 17 servicemen killed in the bombing has recently finished by finding the country of Sudan responsible for the attack, opening the way for compensation payments from the US$68 million in Sudanese assets frozen by the U.S. government. The suit also alleged that al-Zindani selected the two suicide bombers that carried out the strike, although the sheikh was never charged by Yemeni authorities with complicity in the attack (The Virginian-Pilot, March 12). Yemen’s minister of foreign affairs, Dr. Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, welcomed the decision, ignoring the alleged role of al-Zindani, while declaring the verdict proof that Yemen was in no way involved in the attack on the U.S. destroyer.
Also, the Jerusalem Post reported in April 2006 that Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal had met with Zindani at a fundraising event at the Hamas office in Yemen. The report stated that at the event, Zindani “praised Hamas suicide bombers and and called on his followers to donate money to assist the Palestinian people.”
A post from earlier this month reported that Yemeni clerics, including Sheikh al-Zindani, called for the protests that took place in Yemen in connection with the controversial film at the center of recent events .
Other earlier posts reported that Zindani:
- Vowed to gather a million signatures to protest a law banning child brides
- Warned against foreign occupation in the cooperation with U.S. counter-terrorism efforts.
- Claimed that violence in the south of Yemen is part of a foreign plot to divide the country.