Muslim doctors face discrimination for being pro-life

Muslim doctors and medical students are being discriminated against because of their pro-life views, according to a leading Muslim physician. Dr Jafer Qureshi was addressing a conference in London on Saturday organised by the Muslim division of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children. Dr Qureshi told SPUC that he and his colleagues are pursuing some cases of discrimination with deans of medical schools. Some matters are being looked at by lawyers and could go to the Commission for Racial Equality. Issues which arise for Muslim doctors and medical students include abortion, surrogacy and euthanasia. Dr Qureshi has been involved in developing training in Muslim medical ethics. Dr Qureshi is the founding chairman of the Muslim Doctors' and Dentists' Association. He is also a member of the Muslim Council of Britain's health and medical committee and a co-convenor with Dr Anthony Cole, the leading Catholic physician, of the Medical Ethics Alliance. The alliance is providing an ethical response to the government's Mental Incapacity Bill. Dr A Majid Katme, SPUC's Muslim coordinator and the Islamic Medical Association's spokesman on medical ethics, spoke about the Islamic perspective on abortion and euthanasia, citing the numerous references in the Koran to the sanctity of life. He appealed for Muslims to wake up to the need to defend human life and appealed for Muslims to become actively involved in the pro-life movement through SPUC's Muslim division. Dr Katme also urged Muslim doctors to exercise their right to conscientiously object to involvement in abortion and to take a stand against euthanasia by act or omission. Dr Qureshi wholeheartedly endorsed these suggestions. Dr Katme said: "Muslims, Christians and all people who believe in the common good must work together in this Divine, Humane and Islamic campaign to uphold the sanctity of life." John Smeaton, SPUC's national director, spoke about the current pro-life situation, particularly the threat of the draft Mental Incapacity Bill and the incidences of passive euthanasia being carried out in British hospitals. He also referred to the pro-abortion agenda at the UN and its particular application to Muslim countries.