Muslim medical students get picky

[frigidmagi]

TimesUK

[quote]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.

Some trainee doctors 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.
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It will intensify the debate sparked last week by the disclosure 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.

Critics, including many Islamic scholars, see the concessions as a step too far, and say Muslims are reneging on their professional responsibilities.

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 reasonsâ€

[Cpl Kendall]

This is just fucking stupid, to think that you'd spend seven years of your life and potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars and then throw it away for a superstitution.

[Charon]

If the British schools actually cave to this and let these guys pass, I'm going to lose a lot of respect for them. Because they would be knowingly putting people in a position that can save or kill lives everyday, knowing that they don't know everything they need to to save those lives, and that if that doctor is the only one on call, that he might refuse just because the patient is female.

[Cpl Kendall]

What I'm curious about is what were thy thinking when they embarked upon this career path? The UK isn't Assbackistan, you have to treat all comers to your office or hospital equally. I'm not sure if I should marvel at their self-delusion or ask if no one bothered to explain to them that they'd actually have to treat women.

[LadyTevar]

[quote]Shazia Ovaisi, a GP in north London, said one of her male Muslim contemporaries at medical school failed to complete his training because he refused to examine a woman patient as part of his final exams.

“He was academically gifted, one of the best students, but gradually he got in with certain Islamic groups and started to become more radical,â€

[rhoenix]

Well, if the men refuse to treat the women, I suppose the only viable alternative is to encourage more women in Islamic countries to become better educated, and become doctors.

Otherwise, they blind themselves.

[Comrade Tortoise]

the women in many muslim countries are not permitted to be educated or become doctors. Not a viable alternative

[rhoenix]

You're right, but I still offer the hope that this may be a catalyst of positive change.

Muslim countries were once the hub of scientific achievement and advancement - that time has passed centuries ago, but hopefully it did set a precedent.

[Batman]

There is at least one country that is if not the hub of then at least heavily involved in scientific advancement today, and the opinions of its religious fanatics don't differ all that much from the Islamic fanatics...

[The Minx]

Do these guys actually wish to be doctors -- or not?

It seems to me that they want all the privilege and respect of a doctor (equal opportunity and all that) without actually having to be one, or at least they want to pick and choose their responsibilities.

[Dartzap]

They wont get away with it if they pass the exams - A Muslim dentist recently got struck off for refusing to treat a lapsed Muslims woman unless she had a headscarf on.

We may be willing to tolerate and bend the rules on somethings, but they will find their arses served on a platter if they try any shenanigans like this.

Why can't they be more like the Hindus and the Sikhs? They don't cause this amount of trouble. They just build giant temples to rival the ones back in India.

Even the bloody Yank immigrants don't cause this amount of trouble. And there's 130,000 of them!