Monday, August 20, 2007

What's The Truth On This?


Theodore Dalrymple's article in the August 17, 2007 City Journal had a claim to it that seemed just a bit extreme to be true:
In an effort to ensure that no Muslim doctors ever again try to bomb Glasgow Airport, bureaucrats at Glasgow’s public hospitals have decreed that henceforth no staff may eat lunch at their desks or in their offices during the holy month of Ramadan, so that fasting Muslims shall not be offended by the sight or smell of their food. Vending machines will also disappear from the premises during that period.
Apparently the bureaucrats believe that the would-be bombers were demanding sandwich-free offices in Glasgow hospitals during Ramadan. This kind of absurdity is what happens when the highly contestable doctrine of multiculturalism becomes a career opportunity for the semi-educated and otherwise unemployable products of a grossly and unnecessarily swollen university system.
According to the August 14, 2007 Times of London, this was not a response to the Glasgow bombings, and the guidelines were quite a bit less severe than this:
Doctors and nurses in Scotland should refrain from eating in front of their Muslim patients and colleagues during the month of Ramadan according to the Scottish NHS.
Staff in hospitals north of the border were advised by the Scottish Executive and the Scottish NHS to avoid “working lunches” and to move food trolleys away from Muslim colleagues in the month when Islam forbids eating and drinking during daylight hours.
The guidance, also sent to teachers and police stations by a Scottish Muslim consultancy, includes pointers on how to accommodate staff observing Ramadan. Flexible working hours and time off to break the fast are recommended during the four weeks beginning on September 13.
Mary Scanlon, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing in the Scottish Parliament said the move was a “step too far” for political correctness and unnecessary. “Scotland is a very tolerant, sensitive and welcoming country” but she added, “I don’t see it’s necessary for Ramadan to affect the lives of people of other beliefs,” she told Times Online, “It would be like saying Protestants shouldn’t eat meat next to Catholics who want to eat fish on a Friday.”

Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain supported the advice given about Ramadan. “My own experience when fasting is that non-Muslims do want to be sensitive about eating in front of those of us who are hungry,” he said.
Jim McCaffery, director of acute services and workforce, NHS Lothian said the email was sent to a number of senior managers in order to “continue to promote cultural awareness”.
A spokeswoman for Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS denied that staff had been “banned from eating food at their workplaces” but said they had asked employees “to show consideration” for colleagues and patients observing Ramadan.
I agree that sensitivity is a good thing, and Dalrymple's article seems to be inaccurate--but it is rather odd that the multiculturalists are so concerned about being "sensitive" to Muslim concerns, and completely unconcerned about the concerns of Christians. Of course, that's because Christians don't make a habit of blowing up or beheading people that offend them.

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