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).
Sheikh Al-Zindani, September 21, 2012
"No Hadith And No Islamic Scholar Has Ever Said That This Specific Herb Cures AIDS... With The Grace Of Allah, Nobody Realized This But Me"
TV host: "We welcome you to this show, in which we will speak with Sheikh [Al-Zindani], about his announcement yesterday that he received an official patent for his cure for AIDS.
[...]
"Let us begin by talking about your receiving this patent from the World Intellectual Property Organization [WIPO], which is part of the UN and is represented in over 100 countries."
Abd Al-Majid Al-Zindani: "Its headquarters are in Europe, and it has 185 member states.
[...]
"Since the AIDS disease first appeared, and to this day, nobody in the world has claimed, to the best of my knowledge, that he has managed to find a treatment that eliminates the AIDS virus.
[...]
"We have managed to prove, through laboratory evidence, that we have a medicine that eliminates the AIDS virus.
[...]
"No hadith and no Islamic scholar has ever said that this specific herb cures AIDS. This is something I concluded from various indications; with the grace of Allah, nobody realized this but me.
"Many a doctor and many a pharmacist have come across these hadiths, but they did not mention that this herb cures AIDS. But Allah bestowed this breakthrough upon me, and I became the patent holder. This reflects a new understanding of the Islamic texts, as well as a new understanding of the disease and how to cure it."
[...]
"I Have The Cure For Heart Failure" Which To Date Has Been Treated By "Surgical Procedure, In Which They Pull Out The Heart, Throw It Away, And Put In A New One"
Al-Zindani: "I would like to announce that I have the cure for heart failure. This disease had no treatment so far except for a surgical procedure, in which they pull out the heart, throw it away, and put in a new one. Many patients die in the best hospitals in the world while waiting for the right heart.
"I hereby announce – and Allah willing, it will be just like, or even better than, the AIDS affair – that I have 10 proven cases of people who were cured after taking this medicine for a period of one month and 10 days, or two months, or what was it?
"That's it! The heart failure is gone, and there's no need for surgery."
[...]
Sheikh Al-Zindani, January 12, 2007
"There Are Two Ways To Attain Knowledge... The Tangible, Scientific, Experimental Way... [And] Divine Knowledge"
Interviewer: "You said that you relied on a hadith by the Prophet Muhammad, but you did not specify which one. In addition, some may claim that you only spent two years studying pharmacology, yet you talk about a cure for a disease on which pharmaceutical companies have been working for over a decade, and to which they allocate great resources and hire large teams of the most prominent researchers."
[...]
Sheikh Abd Al-Majid Al-Zindani: "Regarding the Prophet's hadith – I must disclose which one, talk about it, and make it public, but the nature of things is that research in this field is the basis for industry, funds, economy, and companies. Today, the trade in medicine is one of the most important things that interest people, and there are international laws forbidding a country to profit from any drug that was registered in another country. Just so that we won't be denied a drug we discovered ourselves... If we disclose it, one company or another might grab it from us."
[...]
Interviewer: "Merely disclosing the Prophet's hadith might reveal these scientific secrets, in your opinion?"
Al-Zindani: "Yes."
Interviewer: "What about the other question?"
Al-Zindani: "There are two ways to attain knowledge. The first is the tangible, scientific, experimental way, which is considered the basis of modern science. This is the human way to attain knowledge. But there is another source of knowledge – divine knowledge, the inspiration that comes from Allah to guide human beings.
[...]
"A child from Libya, sick with the disease, came to us. He had 20,000 copies of the virus. After being treated, Allah be praised, this number dropped so much that the instrument in one of the medical centers, on which we rely and with which we work, was not sensitive enough to register the amount. They say that instruments vary in their sensitivity. In some instruments, if the viruses fall to a very low level – it becomes invisible for that instrument."
[...]
Pharmaceutical Company Owners "Know The Value And Revenue Of Each Drug... We Say To Them: 'Make Your Bids'"
Interviewer: "According to some reports, you do not object to American companies adopting your invention, on condition that they pressure the American administration to remove your name from the list of terrorism suspects. The only thing that interests many people in this matter is for this drug, if it is real and effective, to reach the sick at a low cost. People might view this as an attempt by you to achieve personal political gains."
Al-Zindani: "Allah be praised. If I had said that I would not cooperate with American companies, they would have said that I am a terrorist. If I say I will cooperate with any company in the world, American or not, they say it is a political matter. I'm damned if I do, damned if I don't."
Interviewer: "All we care about is benefiting those who are sick in the fastest way."
Al-Zindani: "This is a humanitarian matter, and it is offered to all people. We welcome cooperation, according to proper principles.
[...]
"The owners of the companies and the people working in pharmacology know the value and revenue of each drug. We too know the value of our drug, and the revenue from it. Therefore, we did not place any conditions on them, and we did not tell them what sum they should offer. Instead, we say to them: 'Make your bids.'"
Interviewer: "If you are approached by some charity, which could produce this drug at cost and provide it to many patients in the Arab and Islamic world and in Africa, would you consider giving up the material profits you could make in the beginning?"
Al-Zindani: "If we take this course, there will be no research centers, and the research centers you want will not develop."
