AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): In letters sent to Wes Streeting, the UK secretary of state for health, and several senior health officials, IMAB warned of a growing number of Islamophobic incidents targeting Muslim staff and patients within the National Health Service (NHS), and urged immediate intervention.
The association said its previous efforts to draw official attention to Islamophobia were met with silence from Streeting and James Mackey, the NHS’s chief executive, an omission IMAB described as “deeply concerning and unjustifiable” under the current circumstances.
IMAB pointed in particular to an Islamophobic incident at Leeds Teaching Hospitals, where a copy of the Qur’an and a framed display containing one of its chapters were vandalized in the hospital’s faith center. The trust’s chief executive described the act as “Islamophobic,” stressing that such behavior has no place in the healthcare system.
According to IMAB, the incident caused “deep distress and suffering” among Muslim staff and patients and forms part of a broader pattern of Islamophobic incidents across the health service, one that has intensified feelings of insecurity, lack of support, and vulnerability among Muslim healthcare workers.
The association also criticized the Labour government’s approach to reviewing racism within the health system, arguing that the focus of the review places greater emphasis on antisemitism than on other forms of racism, including Islamophobia. While reaffirming its opposition to all forms of discrimination, IMAB called for equal and comprehensive treatment of all manifestations of racism.
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