UK MEDIA DISTORTS REPORTS ON MUSLIM DOCTORS

“Inaccurate and Islamophobic and racist.” That is the verdict of Liverpool’s largest children’s hospital over claims that its Muslim medics protested against new hygiene guidelines on religious grounds. The Liverpool Echo reported that female Muslim medical students at the Alder Hey Hospital “objected to rolling up their sleeves when washing their hands and removing arm coverings in theatre, claiming it is regarded as immodest.” The story was subsequently picked up by The Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph. The newspapers also said that “crisis talks” were under way as female Muslim doctors threatened to disobey the Department of Health’s hygiene guidance. Conservative MEP, Dr Charles Tannock, was quoted saying, “These women should not be choosing medicine as a career if they feel unable to abide by the guidelines everyone else has to follow.” A spokesperson for The Royal Liverpool Children’s NHS Trust fervently refuted the allegations made in the report and said, “The Liverpool Echo ran a story that was frankly misleading, inaccurate, untrue and racist in our view. We have taken this up with them and made a formal complaint about their very poor covering of this subject, which has no foundation or substance to it.”