Top Muslim doctor in UK suspended for sending gay hate letter

London, Nov 4 : A Muslim doctor who claimed homosexuals 'prey on society' was declared guilty of misconduct for undermining the Islamic medical community's confidence, a disciplinary panel has ruled.

Dr Muhammad Siddiq, at the time president of the Islamic Medical Association, has been suspended from medical practice for 12 months after sending an "offensive and homophobic" letter to a magazine.

He wrote to a GPs' magazine accusing homosexuals of spreading disease and said they needed to feel 'the stick of the law'. He also branded transsexuals 'twisted'.

The 65-year-old, who trained in Pakistan, stated that society needed to be protected from the ravages of homosexuality and claimed 99 per cent of British Muslims agreed with him, The Telegraph reported. Walsall Primary Care Trust confronted Dr Siddiq about the letter and he said that he had written it due to intense stress and apologised unreservedly for its contents.

But, days later, he lied and said his son had written it as a "spoof" and he had mistakenly signed it and sent it to Pulse without reading it.

Dr Siddiq then told a Pulse journalist he thought gay people "prey on society" and that he thought 99 percent of Muslim GPs shared his views.

The panel, sitting in Manchester, also heard Dr Siddiq refused to accept the findings of an assessment in April last year into his ability to perform minor surgery and had continued to perform circumcisions at the Luqman Medical Centre, in Walsall, despite being advised not to.

ANI