From the Manchester Evening News
A consultant hurled a ‘tirade of abuse’ at two men in a hospital prayer room because they followed a different branch of Islam to him, a disciplinary tribunal heard. Dr Nuri Attagour, a Sunni Muslim, called two Shia Muslims a string of ‘derogatory names’ in a five to 10 minute rant which took during the call to prayer towards the end of Ramadan.
Dr Attagour, a locum consultant physician, has now been suspended for three months following the incident at the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary Hospital in Wigan after a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service panel found him guilty of serious misconduct.
Dr Attagour launched a ‘tirade of abuse’ at two men, referred to as Dr A and Mr B, inside the prayer room at lunchtime on April 19, 2023 and at Mr B the following day. The consultant, the panel found, said called the pair ‘infidels’, ‘filthy’ and ‘disbelievers’.
He also told them that the direction that they prayed in was wrong, that they were ‘the biggest threat to Islam’, and called them ‘Kafir’ which means infidels in Arabic. On April 20 Dr Attagour told Mr B he did not want to be with Shia Muslims ‘in this life or the afterlife’, that ‘he would be burning in the hellfire’ and called Shia Muslims ‘low, evil, disgusting and liars’. (But they are happy to take Iranian (Shia) money and weaponry to fund attacks on Israel – they are funny)
The tribunal heard that at the time the majority of Muslims working at the hospital ‘appeared to be Sunni’. Dr A described the experience ‘very unpleasant and toxic’. Mr B said it was an ‘unexpected degradation’ and a ‘humiliation’.
Dr Attagour accepted that a ‘verbal altercation’ had taken place but denied saying many of the insults.
Dr Attagour, the tribunal heard, has since undertaken ‘remediation work’ including courses in equality, diversity and human rights and had volunteered at a Shia mosque. Despite the differing accounts, the panel ruled that it was ‘more likely than not’ that Dr Attagour did make the alleged comments
The panel found Dr Attagour had a ‘prejudice’ towards Shia Muslims ‘based on his own beliefs as a Sunni Muslim and his experience in his formative years in Libya’. They also said he was ‘not being wholly truthful in his account and may have been embarrassed about how he had behaved’.
Illustration from hospital website accessibility information.
