Amid anxieties in Iran over the coronavirus outbreak and a flurry of precautions to prevent its spread, a controversial ayatollah has declared a new method to “cure” the virus: applying violet oil to the anus.

Abbas Tabrizian, described by his supporters as “the father of Islamic medicine of Iran,” began focusing on “Islamic medicine” when his wife was diagnosed with cancer. Although doctors had given up hope on her, Tabrizian said he was able to cure her after “a short treatment he devised,” according to a website affiliated with the cleric. The Najaf-born cleric studied at the prestigious seminary in the same city, the website said.

Even before his unorthodox prescription for COVID-19, the cleric was under fire from his counterparts and other religious figures, including Grand Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi-Amoli and Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, in the holy city of Qom, the heart of the Shiite sect. They refuted Tabrizian's claims regarding the superiority of "Islamic medicine," arguing there is no such thing.

In January, Tabrizian burned a copy of “Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine,” an American reference book. “This book was a tool for the West's infiltration of other countries,” Tabrizian explained in a Jan. 26 video. He said that Westerners had, throughout history, set fire to “The Canon of Medicine," by Iranian philosopher and physician Avicenna, but failed to specify when and where this had happened. Tabrizian also offered to hold classes for physicians to teach them Islamic medicine and his formulas.