Muslim doctor accused of homophobia walks out of a disciplinary hearing

That bastion of progressive thinking – the Islamic Medical Association – has attracted yet more unwelcome attention, this time as a result of its President, Dr Muhammad Siddiq, storming out of a medical disciplinary hearing.

Would this be the official handbook of the Islamic Medical Association?

The GP found himself before a General Medical Council fitness to practise hearing in Manchester this week as a result of a homophobic letter he sent last year to the magazine Pulse. In it he said:

There is punishment and fine if you throw rubbish or filth on the streets, the gays are worse than the ordinary careless citizen, they are causing the spread of illness and they are the root cause of many sexually-transmitted diseases.They need neither sympathy nor help, what they need is the stick of law to put them on the right path.

The letter went on to call a depressed transsexual awaiting gender reassignment “twisted.”

According to this report, Siddiq – who was working, before his suspension, as a GP at the Walsall Teaching Primary Care Trust when he wrote the letter to Pulse – dismissed his barrister at  hearing and then left the proceedings when he was refused an adjournment to find new counsel.

In his absence, a journalist working for Pulse, the magazine for GPs, told the panel that Dr Siddiq had confirmed in a conversation many of the views expressed in the letter.

Anthony Lithgow testified that the GP thought homosexuality should be illegal, gender reassignment surgery is a waste of money and that  gays “prey on society.”

Siddiq, however, denies that he wrote the letter and claimed his son had played a “cynical spoof” on him by forcing him to sign the letter and sending it to Pulse.

According to this report, Siddiq claimed:

I have discovered that the whole situation has arisen due to a hoax by my son. I asked my son to prepare a letter for me in relation to an article dated June 28 and say that I agreed that gay patients were not being afforded the care they needed.

He said his son drafted the letter for him, but wrote a “spoof version” which he signed and sent to the magazine without reading.

After the magazine published extracts of the letter and his employers, Walsall PCT Primary Care Trusts, called him to discuss his views.

He then wrote to the PTC and apologised for the letter:

I categorically and unreservedly apologise for the hurt and offence I may have caused to anyone who may have read my letter. I have practised as a GP for more than 30 years and have never discriminated on any grounds. I would never refuse any treatment because of someone’s sexuality. I just cannot understand how or why I could have said this in my letter.

The panel was told that just a few days later he claimed his original draft letter had supported better treatment for gay patients.

Said prosecutor Bernadette Baxter:

All the documents I have referred you to and Mr Lithgow’s evidence should leave you in no doubt that Dr Siddiq knew the content of the letter because he had written the letter and it must appear obvious to anyone that the views in it would be recognised as both homophobic and offensive.

She added:

The GMC’s case is that when Dr Siddiq realised that his letter retracting his statement was not going to do the trick and bring an end to the matter, he strayed from the truth and set out a new explanation.

The IMA last year walked straight into a row when it advised Muslim parents not to have their children vaccinated, then angered gay rights groups when its spokesman, Dr Majid Katme, a “family values” activist, opposed  “unjust” Sexual Orientation Regulations designed to improve gay rights.

Dr Majid Katme, of the Islamic Medical Association

It is against our religious rights and against our human rights and against our conscience and religious beliefs to have this new unjust law forced on all of us British Muslims.

He warned that the new laws would require:

Muslims and Christian believers legally to accept and appoint homosexuals or anyone with any sexual deviation in our Muslim institutions and centres, mosques, schools, clubs, companies, hotels, business, shops etc.

UPDATE – Nov 3: The BBC reports today that Siddiq has been suspended from practice for a year.