This is a guest post by Sparkbrook Citizen
Imagine if you or your loved ones were suffering from depression, anxiety or another mental health related issue and, after seeking professional help, you were to be assessed and cared for by a healthcare professional. After being given advice and care by this individual imagine you learnt that they were a member of a far-right extremist group that hates your ethnic group, despises your values and actively works to destroy the foundations of the society you and your loved ones live in. This individual, outside of work hours, actively promotes hatred, sexism, homophobia and discrimination whilst supporting appalling human rights abuses against people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds.
Would you feel betrayed by the healthcare system? Would you feel your ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or creed could have influenced the carer’s judgement and advice? Would you feel that, as a minimum, you had a right to know the extremist affiliations of the healthcare professional that has been trusted to look after your mental well-being? Unfortunately, this is not a hypothetical scenario but a very real one.
Imran Waheed is a leading member and national former spokesperson for the clerical fascist group Hizb ut Tahrir (HT), which is openly sexist, homophobic, and anti-semitic and supports the violent overthrow of democratically elected governments with view to supplanting them with theocratic dictatorships. The group seeks to introduce barbaric punishments, such as stonings and amputations, and the death penalty for anyone who leaves Islam. HT is banned in many countries around the world and subject to a no platform policy by the National Union of Students. Many former HT activists have gone on to commit acts of terror around the world and provide material support for al-Qaeda linked terror plots.
According to his professional website
Imran Waheed is a Consultant Psychiatrist with NHS and private practices in Birmingham. He qualified from the University of Birmingham and has trained in most teaching hospitals in the West Midlands area.
He has a special interest in the assessment and treatment of depression, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, social phobia, sexual dysfunction and psychosis.
He has wide experience treating patients in the ethnic minority areas of Birmingham and is able to communicate in various Asian languages to deliver expert care. He has a very good understanding of the differing needs and requirements of these minority groups.
He regularly delivers lectures to medical students, trainee psychiatrists, general practitioners and health professionals from other disciplines. Recent lectures have addressed social, cultural and ethnic aspects of mood disorders, culture bound syndromes, the assessment of risk, suicide prevention, management of depression in primary care and the neurobiology of depression.
He has an active medico-legal practice and is regularly involved in writing reports and giving expert evidence for both family, civil and criminal proceedings.
He has a keen research interest and has publications looking at managing side effects of commonly used psychiatric medication and improving training of postgraduate doctors.
According to his LinkedIn profile, his current posts include
- Consultant Psychiatrist at Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
- Consultant Psychiatrist at Priory Group
- Second Opinion Appointed Doctor at Care Quality Commission
- Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at University of Birmingham
- College Tutor at The Royal College of Psychiatrists
According to his Guardian Comment is free profile
“Dr Imran Waheed is an Islamic activist and writer. He is the media representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, a global Islamic political party. He has been active in Muslim community affairs for over a decade and has lectured widely at seminars and conferences throughout the UK and abroad. He has given numerous media interviews about Muslim community affairs and has been a vocal critic of the Iraq war.”
Hizb ut-Tahrir (Arabic for “the Party of Liberation”), sometimes called Hizb-ut-Tahrir Al-Islami (“the Islamic Party of Liberation”), is a political party that reportedly has cells in 40 or more nations. It is outlawed in Russia, Germany and many Islamic countries that regard it as a radical, subversive, terrorist organization. Hizb ut-Tahrir is a legal political party in the United Kingdom.
Dr Waheed is regularly featured as a spokesperson at HT events, examples can be found here and here
He is particularly apt at double talk, for example
Waheed claims
“Our aim is to re-establish the Islamic Caliphate in the Muslim world. Our vision of the Islamic Caliphate is one of an independent state with an elected and accountable leader, an independent judiciary, political parties, the rule of law and equal rights for minority groups.
Citizens of a caliphate have every right to be involved in politics and hold the ruler accountable for his actions. The role of the ruler (caliph) is to be a servant to the masses who governs them with justice” [1]
In response to a question about violence, Waheed answered that:
“[T]he party considers violence or armed struggle against the regime a violation of the Islamic Sharia… [T]he party works with people of influence within societies to convince them of the need for intellectual and political change.”[2]
To its members, however, HT does not hide its strategy and intentions. As it has told them,
“The Islamic State is by no means an easy acquisition, nor a question of simply becoming ministers (this applies to both parties and individuals) or becoming part of the present ruling system. The road is embedded with thorns, full of perils, obstacles and hardships, not to mention the non-Islamic culture, shallow thinking and pro-Western regimes which form a formidable obstacle. Those who tread the path of the Islamic call to restore the Islamic State would in fact be aiming at seizing power in order to resume the Islamic way of life in the Muslim lands, and to convey the Message of Islam to the whole world.”[3]
Now imagine his patients were female, homosexual, Jewish or former-Muslims, is it likely that they will get unbiased professional care at his hands? Should someone who is an active recruiter for an extremist group be in contact with vulnerable people going through difficult phases in their life? Should such an individual be allowed to lecture at universities and, potentially, recruit young people to his extremist group? Should someone who has shown such appalling judgement in joining an extremist group be allowed to give professional advice on sensitive matters without his patients being aware of his political affiliation?
[1] http://www.worldsecuritynetwork.com/Broader-Middle-East/manuela-paraipan/Our-aim-is-to-reestablish-the-Islamic-Caliphate-in-the-Muslim-world
[2] IBID
[3] Dawood Hamda, Introduction to The Islamic State, p. 2
