Sheikh Abdolhamid Ismaeelzahi, a Sunni Islamic scholar based in Zehdan, Iran, said that COVID-19 came to Qom, Iran and subsequently spread to the rest of the country through Chinese students of religion at the state-funded Al-Mustafa International University, reports the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

Al-Mustafa is a Shiite institution where Ismaeelzahi said Sunnis are being brainwashed and which he said does things that are inconsistent with the Islamic Revolution's goals of unifying the Islamic nation.

He also said that some students at Al-Mustafa International University are forbidden from returning to their countries of origin.