ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A Kurdish mullah was arrested by Saudi authorities on Tuesday for staging the divine healing of a blind man, two days after announcing he had left the Kurdistan Region to seek freedom to practice in the Gulf.
Mullah Ali Kalak, more widely known as Mala Ali Kurdistani, has garnered controversy through videos which purportedly show him healing sick, possessed and disabled people using Quranic verses.
Kalak published a video on Facebook on Sunday in which he purportedly heals an elderly man in the holy Saudi city of Medina who claims to have been blind for ten years. The mullah licks his index finger with his tongue and places it on both of the man’s eyes, before reading a chapter from the Quran. Seconds later, the elderly man claims he has regained his sight.
He was arrested soon after the video’s release. Medina police told Rudaw they arrested Mullah Ali for "importing Pakistani people”, in reference to man who appeared in the video, “and claiming he heals them”.
Prior arrests for apparent trickery have been made by Medina’s police, who said they had previously arrested a 50-year-old Iraqi at the city’s holiest mosque for deception.
Kalak said in another Sunday video that he had moved permanently to the Gulf region after being targeted by Kurdistan Region authorities.
The healing center he ran in his hometown of Kalak, 40 kilometers from Erbil, was repeatedly closed down, a KRG health official told Rudaw English. He faced multiple arrests and court summons from Kurdistan Region officials for his practice.
"They respect us in all countries. I love my country. I carry a science which I want to take everywhere in the world. I want to teach everyone [about healing people through the Holy Quran]," he said in the video.
"Kurdistan is not interested in science,” he said in the video, asserting that people like him are arrested in the Kurdistan Region but honored and awarded in other countries.
“We have many scholars but they are not served. They are killed, arrested or made homeless instead."
Kalak’s arrest received both praise and condemnation on Kurdish social media. In a poll conducted by Rudaw Sorani’s Facebook page, around 58 percent of 30,000 participants voted against the decision to arrest Kalak.
"His [healing] videos are clear. His release is expected to happen soon," Facebook user Mzafar Xoshnaw commented below the poll.
"It’s unfortunate that Kurdistan lost such a great man," Facebook user Shoresh Sh Yassen said.
Others were happy about the arrest, calling his practice deceptive.
"I have watched most of his videos. It is clear he is deceiving people," Shewan Sherzad said on Facebook.
"He should have been arrested much earlier. Not the Saudi government, but the KRG should have done it. Thank you Saudi Arabia," Farman Tahseen said.
Mullah Ali courted controversy in 2017 by claiming that US President Donald Trump is possessed, and that he could heal Trump by beating the soles of his feet.
"He has lost his mind and oversteps his boundaries all the time. He needs help. Unless he is cured he will continue to act like he does now," Kalak said of Trump in an interview with Rudaw.
A video shared by Kalak last month showing him drinking camel urine and milk for its supposed health benefits in the United Arab Emirates has garnered 3 million views on Facebook.
Additional reporting by Zhelwan Z. Wali
