Islamic faith healers condemn 'charlatans'

ABU DHABI (AFP) - Witch doctors have "soiled the image of Islam" by prescribing harmful treatments in the guise of faith healing, according to Muslim clerics and doctors who gathered in Abu Dhabi to affirm the healing powers of the Koran.

Delegates agreed that the Koran has healing powers, with some going so far as to claim that the holy book can cure AIDS' and some forms of cancer.

Sheikh Jallul Hajimi, an official in the Algerian ministry of religious affairs, told AFP he had cured "Europeans suffering from mental and sexual illnesses that psychologists and neurologists had failed to treat."

"More than 400 people have converted to Islam after receiving Koranic medical treatments," added his colleague, Sheikh Abu Muslim Balhamr.

Many Muslims believe the Koran can cure illness. The most common treatment consists of drinking water with pieces of paper bearing Koranic verses dissolved in it.

In what he described as a blending of the longstanding practice with modern technology, Sharif Shukran, an Algerian biomedical engineer attending the conference, proposed transforming the sound of Koranic verses into electromagnetic waves and passing them through the water instead.

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