Female Muslim Medics 'Disobey Hygiene Rules'

As if we needed further reminders about how militant Islam is incompatible with modernity:

Muslim medical students are refusing to obey hygiene rules brought in to stop the spread of deadly superbugs, because they say it is against their religion.

Sheffield University also reported a case of a Muslim medic who refused to "scrub" as this left her forearms exposed.

Documents from Birmingham University reveal that some students would prefer to quit the course rather than expose their arms, and warn that it could leave trusts open to legal action.

Hygiene experts said last night that no exceptions should be made on religious grounds.

"I don't think it would be right to make an exemption for people on any grounds. The policy of bare below the elbows has to be applied universally."

Dr Charles Tannock, a Conservative MEP and former hospital consultant, said: "These students are being trained using taxpayers' money and they have a duty of care to their patients not to put their health at risk.

"Perhaps these women should not be choosing medicine as a career if they feel unable to abide by the guidelines that everyone else has to follow."

But the Islamic Medical Association insisted that covering all the body in public, except the face and hands, was a basic tenet of Islam.

"No practising Muslim woman - doctor, medical student, nurse or patient - should be forced to bare her arms below the elbow," it said.

As Mark Hemingway noted on The Corner, "Hey, you know what's really immodest? Claiming your religion as a pretext to justify giving other people staph infections."

I've always said that if you want to test whether some grievance is ridiculous or not, you should try swapping in the adjectives of a Designated Oppressor Group (e.g. white, Christian, male, conservative, heterosexual, etc.) for the po' widdle babies complaining as in this story. It looks like this:

Catholic medical students are refusing to obey hygiene rules brought in to stop the spread of deadly superbugs, because they say it is against their religion.

Women training in several hospitals in England have raised objections to removing their arm coverings in theatre and to rolling up their sleeves when washing their hands, because it is regarded as immodest in Catholicism.

How much sympathy would those people get? They'd be told, "Roll up the sleeves and wash or GTFO!!!!", wouldn't they? Duh.