Editing Discredited HIV/AIDS origins theories (section)

==Prominent endorsers of discredited theories==

=== Nation of Islam ===
The [[Nation of Islam]] endorses the view that governments and pharmaceutical companies have pursued genocidal racist policies including the creation and spread of HIV. Consequently, the group called for a boycott of U.S.-sponsored vaccination programs for children. Leonard Horowitz has been cited as influential in the boycott decision.<ref>Knight, Peter, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=2y0domliGh8C&q=Leonard%20Horowitz&pg=PA201 Conspiracy Culture: From the Kennedy Assassination to the X-files]'', p. 202 {{isbn|9780415189781}}</ref>

=== Wangari Maathai ===
The 2004 [[Nobel Peace Prize]] laureate and environmental activist [[Wangari Maathai]] was asked by a [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]] interviewer if she stood by a previous alleged claim that "AIDS is a biological weapon manufactured by the developed world to wipe out the black race". Maathai responded, "I have no idea who created AIDS and whether it is a biological agent or not. But I do know things like that don't come from the moon.&nbsp;... I guess there is some truth that must not be too exposed."<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Faris, Stephan |title=10 Questions: Wangari Maathai |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=10 October 2004 |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,713166,00.html |access-date=2007-03-19}}</ref> Maathai subsequently issued a written statement in December 2004: "I neither say nor believe that the virus was developed by white people or white powers in order to destroy the African people. Such views are wicked and destructive."<ref>[http://greenbeltmovement.org/wangari-maathai/key-speeches-and-articles/challenge-of-AIDS from the Green Belt Movement website- Wangari Maathai's "The Challenge of AIDS in Africa"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006082858/http://greenbeltmovement.org/a.php?id=30 |date=6 October 2011 }}.</ref>

=== Manto Tshabalala-Msimang ===
In 2000 [[Minister of Health (South Africa)|South Africa's Minister of Health]] [[Manto Tshabalala-Msimang]] received criticism for distributing the chapter from Cooper's book discussing this theory to senior South African government officials.<ref name="BBC News">{{cite news |title=SA Government steps into Aids row |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/924927.stm |access-date=17 January 2013 |publisher=BBC News |date=14 September 2000}}</ref> [[Nicoli Nattrass]], a longtime critic of AIDS denialists, criticized Tshabalala-Msimang for lending legitimacy to Cooper's theories and disseminating them in Africa.<ref name=Nattrass>{{cite book |last=Nattrass |first=Nicoli |title=The AIDS Conspiracy: Science Fights Back |year=2012 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |isbn=9780231149129 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/aidsconspiracysc0000natt/page/4 4], 23–27 |url=https://archive.org/details/aidsconspiracysc0000natt |url-access=registration |author-link=Nicoli Nattrass |access-date=17 January 2013}}</ref>