Dr Majid Katme (who really exists, and has been at it for years; I have talked to him) is telling Muslim women that they must not get their children vaccinated because some of the products used to make vaccine are haram.
This is of course far more wicked and stupid than the Catholic Church’s stand on gay adoptions and far more likely to harm society in general. This is worse even than the disgraceful Andrew Wakefield, whose precedent is not encouraging here. But Wakefield only opposed one vaccination, and he operated through the media, influencing people, who were or wanted to be, middle class. Their children were probably fairly healthy to begin with, and they could themselves be reached by the same papers which spread Wakefield’s nonsense in the first place.
But the kind of mothers who might listen to the Islamic Medical Association (or the Muslim Council of Britain, on which Katme sits) are not going to be reached by educated opinion. Their children are also going to be poorer, less well-nourished, and living in worse accommodation; and his advice applies to all vaccinations. So his advice, would, if followed, not only make them ill, but lead to them becoming a reservoir of infection for everyone else. This is such a ghastly working out of the standard racist fantasy that it forces me to conclude that there is a God, and he agrees with Richard Dawkins.
Presumably those who insist that conscience overrides law are backing Doctor (Doctor!) Katme on this. And they’ll also back those whose conscience says that it is a damnable, unholy piece of ordure which brings down suffering and pain on the most vulnerable.
Perhaps we could ask them for advice?
Apparently this clown is also SPUC’s Muslim coordinator. If he still holds that position, I think someone ought to ask them whether they are in favour of unborn children being killed and maimed by diseases like rubella and babies dying in agony from preventable diseases. Not very ‘pro-life’ is it?
The logic has to be that rubella or whooping cough are the will of god. Who are we mortals to interpose our technologies, using items forbidden in scripture and oral tradition, to his ineffable will?
I think you get it slightly wrong, Andrew. The proper conclusion is that there is a god, and he agrees with Sam Harris.