Classic headline from an op-ed wondering about whether last week’s events will impact screening foreign physicians:
Terrorist doctors might now just be the in thing for jihadis. Canada, like Britain has a doctor shortage where the solution is to bring in foreign doctors. Andy Knight, a University of Alberta specialist in industrial relations said that our screening of foreign doctors is not sufficient. But the reality is that no amount of screening will reveal who is likely to be a radical and who is not. A “brilliant neurosurgeon” is not likely to have a criminal record. The only solution to this problem, other than to end all Muslim immigration is to watch these doctors after they have arrived. It is doubtful that we have the resources to do that.
Related posts:
- The physician shortage and terrorism
- Institutionalizing drunks?
- Abusing J-1 physicians
- "No beginning physician could afford to cover the liability risks of today, alone"
- Physician brain drain
- Backlash against Muslim physicians?
- Body cavity search gone horribly wrong
KevinMD.com on Facebook
{ 19 comments }
According to my calculations, muslim doctors are 780% more likely to engage in terrorist activities than non-muslim docs.
This is an easy problem to solve. These docs come thru regular channels, they arent swimming across the Rio Grande. They are MUCH easier to track than other immigrants, so all this hand wringing about how we dont have the resources for background checks is a load of BS.
First off, any FMG (foreign medical grad) from a muslim-dominated country should have a strenuous background check. We dont have that now, there are ZERO background checks on FMGs in the USA or UK.
Its not like we dont have alternatives. India by itself has HUGE doctor population with only a small % of them being muslim. We can take them in and tell the muslim FMGs from the middle east to fuck off.
oooOOOOOO!
The PC cops are gonna get you Anon 2:14.
“…end all Muslim immigration…”
Damn. The solution was hidden but present in the original post all along.
I think anon 2:14 must be a Hindu Indian who wants a Visa…
Why aren’t we recognizing the Royal College fellowship? One would think the Anglophone world would be a source of more physicians than we currently see here.
Get outta here. My partner is an Indian muslim physician who everyone just assumes must be Hindu. His sister is a physician too. No, she doesn’t wear a veil or head covering. And one of the most selfless and intelligent Muslim physician friends of mine (I am Christian) left the US to return to Lebanon to try to cure some ills there. He was born and raised in the US. How many of you really chose your religion? Most often you follow what you are born and raised with.
It’ll be the Jews next I guess
Physicians have both a legal and a moral duty to act in the best interests of their patients.
Knowing that Islam regards infidels as unclean filth on the same level as urine and feces (see Grand Ayatolla Ali Sistani’s website) and that the abuse and slaying of infidels is the duty of a good Muslim, would you refer a patient to a Muslim physician?
Would you place political correctness above your duty to your patient?
We are in a war with radical Islam. Since the radicalism stems from the source text of the ideology and cuts across nations, specific sects, social classes, and national boundaries, simple common sense indicates that we stop ALL imigration of Muslims until this war is over.
The story of this war is filled with relatively non-devout (i.e. “safe” Muslims) getting highly religious and turning violent–as that is what the Koran commands. The only common identifying factor is the religion itself.
It is a war, war requires compromises of business as usual.
“It’ll be the Jews next I guess”
I seriously doubt that Jews are going to start killing “infidels” and ramming airplanes into tall buildings.
While we are attacking people, let us not forget the few whackos of the radical Christian right who have murdered physicians and bombed abortion clinic. These folks seem to the primary force of home-grown terrorism in recent US history.
So what is “American MD” suppose to denote? I can tell you that it does not mean you are not a Muslim to me.
Why don’t we take a personal religion poll for full disclosure, one statement per poster. I am a nonfundamentalist Protestant Christian. I am tolerant of others, and have colleagues, friends, and patients of all major religions, including Islam. When I visited Turkey in my youth, I stayed with a most hospitable Muslim friend and his family, who were the only Muslims in the otherwise Jewish building. It is safe to say that it seemed these folks had about as much religious fervor as I do. I also believe that religion is something you are largely born into and is rarely chosen. I have been mistaken for a Muslim and Jew on a few occasions in different cultural settings. I took no offense. It is the fundamentalist and radical elements of ANY religion that are dangerous.
” seriously doubt that Jews are going to start killing “infidels” and ramming airplanes into tall buildings”
No, but once the racism against perfectly secular Muslims (yes, there are many) proceeds in this manner, all races and religions, especially one percieved to be the root cause of the Muslim terror attacks by much of the world(Israel’s “war” against Palestinians), then Jews can be indicted next.
We shouldn’t put a blanket ban on Muslim doctors. We should just screen carefully. It’s generally accepted in history that Japanese interment during WWII was a mistake (I think).
Angry Doctor,
I agree that the internment of American citizens of Japanese descent was a huge mistake.
Whether the internment of non-citizen residents of the US was a mistake is debatable.
There is no racism when you want FMGs to do what the program was intended to do. GO BACK TO THEIR OWN COUNTRY. The system was meant to share our knowledge worldwide, not evolve into the system we have now.
Everyone seems to know that except Uncle Sam.
Mike, because “it is generally accepted” that the internment of Japanese immigrants during WW2 was a mistake, that doesn’t mean that is the entire story. That is a story which only very few now know or have any interest in knowing both sides. We have, as a people, quickly and without critical examination, accepted the pejorative interpretation of that event in history as it was inconsistent with who we think we are and how we see ourselves–as a nation where all are magically assimilated into loyal Americanism and everyone is judged on his individual behavior only.
I suggest, if you it is something that if you want to know the whole truth about, you look at it deeper. Just a few of the interesting facts that you will find:
More Japanese-Americans did or tried to join the Japanese Imperial forces than served in the US in the much vaunted Japanese brigades that volunteered from that group.
On of the worst abusers at Bataan was an American citizen raised in California.
Only 5 % of the Japanese-Americans eligible to serve the US volunteered, far far lower than Italian immigrants, Germans, American Indians, and any other group. The part of the story celebrating their patriotism has another side.
More Italians and German were forcebly interned than Japanese. Most of the Japanese who went to the camps were not interned but rather were excluded from living on the California coast. They could live elsewhere in the country and the majority found places to live and left the camps before the exclusion order was lifted.
Most importantly, the reason for the exclusion order suggests that it was perhaps not a mistake but a critical and timely war measure. During the first month after the attack on Pearl Harbor, nearly every vessel that left the West coast bound for Hawaii had an attempted Japanese submarine attack fairly close to the coast. The remarkable success rate of the Japanese subs in interdicting the traffic engaged in a desperate defensive buildup of Hawaii presented a near certainty that the Japanese had a network of agents watching and reporting vessel movements. The decision was made that there was not time to discover and dismantle that network, and the expedient of dislocation was chosen.
At the same time, hundreds of thousands of Americans were being dispossesed of their homes on days or weeks notice all over the nation for emergency constuction of bases, factories, harbors, bombing ranges, etc. My own ancestors had their home taken on 9 days notice and turned into an artillery range. The Japanese were being treated no differently than many others except for the reason–and they were given a place to stay and their goods warehoused while my people were put out on the road with what they could carry.
We have done what we needed to do to survive in the past, and, if we have the guts, can do so again without betraying out heritage, however much we may betray it’s mythology.
Anon 10:05
From what reputable historical source did you learn this?
As for current events, my best friend is a muslim physician, who is not practicing. He’s been living here since age 13 (>20 yrs). Are you suggesting we inter him and his family? If so, thaqn you are a nut.
Comments on this entry are closed.