Relentless racism

I HAVE every sympathy with Natasha Pearlman, who has experienced antiSemitism three times (Mail).

As a British Muslim medical consultant of South Asian origin with 35 years of NHS service, I have been on the receiving end of relentless racism on a daily basis and of implied and even overt Islamophobia at least weekly.

One patient in a busy waiting area in my clinic, which was admittedly running late, loudly demanded to know what was holding up ‘Saddam Hussein’ and whether I was on the floor praying or with my ‘harem’, referring to the nurses.

Having drawn gasps from other waiting patients, the man walked out, saying he would not return until the hospital employed ‘ proper’ doctors. Despite claiming a zerotolerance approach to abuse, we were instructed to book the man a new appointment. Meanwhile, a 21-year-old female patient refused to be examined, declaring she’d rather die than be touched by ‘one of you’.

No amount of gentle persuasion from the nurse chaperone or the patient’s mother made any difference. To add injury to insult, as a parting threat the patient and her mother demanded a diagnosis and the best possible treatment plan immediately ‘or else . . .’

The Jewish community is worried that their British identity is under threat. For non-white Muslims, who are visibly different and so readily identifiable, to all intents and purposes, our British identity does not exist.

I hope the anti-Semitism debate helps to expose and address all racism and religious bigotry. Neither should be accepted or tolerated in modern Britain. J. F. KHAN, Derby.