Faith-related discrimination in healthcare affects patient outcomes, staff wellbeing, workforce retention, and equitable access to care.
As a representative body of Muslim healthcare professionals, BIMA is uniquely placed to identify these challenges, centre lived experience, and work constructively with institutions to deliver practical, evidence-based solutions.
Our advocacy is grounded in policy engagement, research, professional expertise, and principled dialogue. We support Muslim clinicians to practise with integrity and confidence, and we champion healthcare environments where faith-based needs are understood rather than marginalised.
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In recent years, BIMA has responded to complex and sensitive issues affecting healthcare professionals, including censorship, Islamophobia, and the real-world consequences of wider social and political events. Building on this work, we are strengthening our long-term influence through strategic partnerships, increased visibility, and sustained engagement with regulators, employers, and professional bodies.
For many Muslim healthcare professionals, Islamophobia is something they navigate every day. Around two-thirds report experiencing it at work, whether through subtle exclusion, stereotyping, or being made to feel they don’t fully belong.
We work to challenge unfairness, and support workplaces where people feel safe to be themselves, including around issues like faith-based dress, identity, and belonging. Our advocacy work focuses on dignity, accountability, and creating a healthcare environment where people can care for others without compromising who they are.
We also speak up on wider ethical questions facing healthcare. From debates around assisted dying to the right to practise in line with one’s conscience, we believe professionals should be able to engage thoughtfully and respectfully without fear of being marginalised or silenced. Professional standards should be fair and consistently applied.
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BIMA advocates for fairness, ethical practice, and inclusion in healthcare. We challenge Islamophobia through training and lobbying, support safe and inclusive workplaces, engage in debates on ethics and conscience (including assisted dying), and speak out on global health issues, from conflict zones to humanitarian crises. Our goal is to protect healthcare professionals and the patients they serve, ensuring a system that is equitable, accountable, and compassionate.
It includes research, publishing reports, engaging with national bodies, delivering training, amplifying lived experiences, and working collectively to push for change.
We routinely use Islamophobia because it is internationally recognised, widely used in academic, policy, and human rights settings, and has been used by Muslim communities for decades to describe their lived experiences. While other terms capture aspects of the issue, Islamophobia highlights the institutional and racialised nature of discrimination – the way Muslims are often treated as a monolithic group despite being highly diverse.
Debates about language can distract from addressing real harm. It is also important that marginalised communities have the right to name their experiences without external pressure to adopt alternative terms, especially when similar pressure is not applied to terms like Homophobia or Xenophobia. We do sometimes reference terms like “anti-Muslim hate” alongside Islamophobia, but the latter remains the most meaningful way to describe the discrimination people experience.
Muslim healthcare professionals report a wide range of experiences from microaggressions, stereotyping, and exclusion, to challenges around prayer, fasting, and religious dress. Some feel unable to raise concerns about humanitarian issues such as Palestine advocacy or express their identity, and others fear professional consequences for speaking out. These experiences are often intertwined with institutional policies or cultural assumptions, making them more than individual prejudice.
We believe professional standards must be applied consistently and fairly. Staff should be able to act with integrity, raise concerns, or engage in ethical debates, including discussions on humanitarian advocacy or assisted dying, without fear of intimidation, double standards, or disproportionate scrutiny.
Inclusive workplaces are essential not only for staff wellbeing but for safe, compassionate patient care. Respecting religious expression, identity, and moral conscience is part of creating a healthy environment where professionals can do their best work.
Healthcare is global, and attacks on healthcare workers, patients, or infrastructure anywhere are a concern for all health professionals. BIMA advocates for the protection of healthcare and adherence to humanitarian law in conflict zones, including Palestine.
Many British healthcare professionals have personal connections, whether through relatives, communities, or prior work in conflict zones and witnessing or hearing about violence can cause significant moral and psychological distress, often referred to as moral injury. Speaking out and advocating for the protection of healthcare is one way to address these harms, support colleagues, and uphold the ethical principles of medicine, even from the UK.
Through our censorship survey, many healthcare professionals have shared experiences of feeling unable to speak on humanitarian, ethical, or workplace issues for fear of professional consequences. This includes topics like Palestine, Islamophobia, and ethical concerns at work. The inconsistency in how rules are applied, where some voices face greater scrutiny than others, risks silencing legitimate discussion and undermines both staff and patient care.
Absolutely not. Antisemitism is real, serious, and completely unacceptable. BIMA condemns it clearly and consistently in all forms. Speaking out about Palestinian rights or broader humanitarian concerns is not antisemitism, and it is important that these issues are not conflated. Doing so can unfairly target healthcare professionals, create a climate of self-censorship, and distract from addressing real instances of hate.
Advocacy for humanitarian issues is a matter of ethical responsibility and human rights, and it is not limited to any one faith or community. People of all faiths and none, support the protection of civilians and healthcare in conflict zones. BIMA calls for clear, fair, and consistently applied standards so healthcare professionals can speak, act, and engage in ethical debate without fear, while ensuring antisemitism is unequivocally condemned wherever it occurs.
We use the term to describe situations where healthcare professionals feel unable to speak openly, particularly on humanitarian, ethical, or identity-related issues, due to fear of professional consequences. This isn’t always explicit. It can take the form of informal warnings, referrals, social media scrutiny, or a general sense that certain topics are “off limits.”
Through our work, including our censorship survey, many healthcare professionals have shared concerns about being silenced or disproportionately scrutinised, particularly when speaking about issues like Palestine, Islamophobia, or workplace discrimination. Some report self-censoring to avoid risk to their careers.
A key concern is inconsistency. There is a growing perception that some groups or viewpoints are treated more harshly than others, which risks creating a hierarchy of whose voices are protected and whose are not.
We offer bespoke sessions for hospitals, trusts, GP practices, universities and healthcare teams – including workshops on Islamophobia, inclusive workplaces, and ethical professional standards. The cost will depend on your requirements. You can book a BIMA Islamophobia training session directly by contacting our team at [email protected]
Healthcare professionals and the public can support us by sharing experiences, participating in surveys, attending workshops, or contributing to our advocacy initiatives. Real change comes from raising voices, sharing evidence, and holding systems accountable.
