Should Muslims have faith based health services?

doi:10.1136/bmj.39072.347720.68

BMJ 2007;334:74 (13 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.39072.347720.68

Feature

Head to head

Should Muslims have faith based health services?

Aziz Sheikh, professor of primary care research and development

¹ Division of Community Health Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9DX

Aziz.Sheikh@ed.ac.uk

At a time when many government and public bodies are recognisingthe importance of engaging with faith communities, Aziz Sheikhadvocates that the UK should provide specific health servicesfor Muslims. But Aneez Esmail argues that such services couldenhance stigmatism

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Muslims have the poorest overall health profilein Britain, but there are few faith centred initiatives aimingto improve health outcomes for our largest minority faith community.This reflects the general failure among academics, policymakers,and clinicians to appreciate the particular needs faith communitiesmay have. There are important moral, political, and increasinglylegal arguments underscoring the need to ensure equitable deliveryof public services to all sections of society, including Muslims.In the short to medium term, these needs will most efficientlybe met by taking several faith specific healthcare initiatives.The longer term goals, however, are to mainstream understandingof the importance of religious identity and develop appreciationof how this has the potential to interact with health and healthcaredelivery.

There has been a Muslim presence in Britainfor almost half a millennium, yet Islam remains something ofan enigma to most UK citizens.¹ Even among people . . . [Full text of this article]

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Rapid Responses:

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Working Side by Side-Where is the Head to Head Here?: Kawaldip Sehmi
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