Some Muslim medical students are refusing to attend lectures or answer exam questions on alcohol-related or sexually transmitted diseases because they claim it offends their religious beliefs. They say learning to treat the diseases conflicts with their faith, which states that Muslims should not drink alcohol and rejects sexual promiscuity. A small number of Muslim medical students have even refused to treat patients of the opposite sex. One male student was prepared to fail his final exams rather than carry out a basic examination of a female patient.
The religious objections by students have been confirmed by the British Medical Association (BMA) and General Medical Council (GMC), which both stressed that they did not approve of such actions.
We are all aware of the news that Sainsbury's is permitting Muslim checkout operators to refuse to handle customers' alcohol purchases on religious grounds. It means other members of staff have to be called over to scan in wine and beer for them at the till. This weekend, however, it emerged that Sainsbury's is also allowing its Muslim pharmacists to refuse to sell the morning-after pill to customers. At a Sainsbury's store in Nottingham, a pharmacist named Ahmed declined to provide the pill to a female reporter posing as a customer. A colleague explained to her that Ahmed did not sell the pill for "ethical reasons". Boots also permits pharmacists to refuse to sell the pill on ethical grounds.
The BMA said it had received reports of Muslim students who did not want to learn anything about alcohol or the effects of overconsumption. "They are so opposed to the consumption of it they don't want to learn anything about it," said a spokesman.
The GMC said it had received requests for guidance over whether students could "omit parts of the medical curriculum and yet still be allowed to graduate". Professor Peter Rubin, chairman of the GMC's education committee, said: "Examples have included a refusal to see patients who are affected by diseases caused by alcohol or sexual activity, or a refusal to examine patients of a particular gender." He added that "prejudicing treatment on the grounds of patients' gender or their responsibility for their condition would run counter to the most basic principles of ethical medical practice".
Where will it end? We've already got the prestigious and very respectable Terence Higgins Trust backing gay men who want to do dirty things with each other in public but don't want any straight men to look at them while they do it.
So what next? Bus drivers refusing to carry anyone with a B&Q bag in case it contains paint? Train guards ejecting anyone who looks as though he might have a packet of fags in his pocket? Sikh policemen refusing to deal with anyone not wearing a turban? Teachers refusing to teach any child who's stupid? Swimming-pool attendants banning anyone who's fat in case their wobbling bellies set a bad example to the kiddies or offend the kiddies' slim parents?
Perhaps this is what we have to look forward to when ID cards are introduced - every detail of our private lives will be available so that anyone we deal with, shop assistants, utility companies, local authorities and other official bodies can decide just which services they're prepared to let us have and which we should be denied in case they're bad for us, or in case we don't belong to the right sector of society.
Just how far will we go before we tell people who claim they belong to oppressed minorities to get on and live with it? Let's face it, we're all part of some minority or other. Train spotters get a lot of stick. Yachtsmen are vilified if they get in trouble and call the lifeboat out. Climbers are irresponsible risk-takers who endanger the lives of others. Motor-cyclists are lethal lunatics. Smokers and fat people are now officially second-class citizens not entitled to lead their lives as they wish. School children … single parents … classical music-lovers … grumpy people … we're all part of some minority or other, so when are we all going to receive our own privileges?
In the case of the medical students, once again (see here) Muslim leaders have weighed in with a bit of sense. Both the Muslim Council of Britain and Muslim Doctors' and Dentists' Association said they were aware of students opting out but did not support them. Dr Abdul Majid Katme of the Islamic Medical Association, said "To learn about alcohol, to learn about sexually transmitted disease, to learn about abortion, it gives us more evidence to campaign against it. There is a difference between learning and practising. It is obligatory for Muslim doctors and students to learn about everything. The prophet said, 'Learn about witchcraft, but don't practise it'."
But it really matters very little what these worthy people say, so long as our governors - parliament, local councils, civil servants, council officials and those responsible for our public services - refuse to back them up and confront those ignorant and prejudiced groups who are intent on moulding our society to their own ends. Ordinary British people, the responsible majority of our immigrant population, gay people, religious people, disabled people, even criminal people - we could all get on fine if only we weren't saddled with a ruling class that has piss for brains and a broad yellow streak down its back.
The GOS says: Mind you, we don't get the same class of medical students as we used to. Here's a passage from Francis Gilbert's Yob Nation
in which he quotes a senior medical lecturer …
"… we are obliged to take students from all ethnic backgrounds so that they can serve the diverse ethnic communities in Britain. The problem is that these boys are often poorly educated and intellectually impoverished. They speak an "argot" or vernacular which can mean that they are incomprehensible to patients, and their manner can be aggressive and antisocial; their clothes are more reminiscent of gang members with their baggy jeans and baseball caps on the wrong way round … a few years ago a lecturer in our department brought in a patient to a lecture in order to show the students the reactions of a patient to various procedures. The patient happened to be an attractive young woman … the lecture had to be stopped because the woman was wolf-whistled and jeered. Now, lectures can be quite rowdy … the students just don't know how to behave. They often arrive late, greet their friends with high fives and loud greetings, and then think nothing of gossiping all through the lecture. They like to text each other and read the Sun. Some even think it is OK to speak on their mobile phones".
I'm sure most of you are thinking what I'm thinking - that this is a storm in a teacup. Yes, no doubt it's just a small handful of young Muslims being stupid as young people so often are. And yes, no doubt if they persist in this nonsense they'll fail their exams and will never become doctors. And yes, there is every reason to assume that the vast majority of Muslims working in our health system are good at their jobs, thorough and completely conscientious.
But that's the point, isn't it? Because they are a small group of ignorant and silly young people, it's all the more important that their half-baked views are not given even the tiniest shred of credibility. They must not be taken seriously. If they are, they'll spread to other silly young people. They may do anyway, but that's no reason to hasten the process by letting them think they matter.
Trouble is, that's just what our wonderful politically-correct society is so very bad at. They're a minority (yes, a tiny minority), and that makes it all the more likely that the powers-that-be will do exactly the wrong thing. And that'll not only be unfair on the rest of us, but for vulnerable patients in our health system it could be dangerous and tragic.
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