Elham Asaad Buaras
A Wigan doctor has been suspended after a tribunal found he unleashed a shocking anti-Shia Muslim rant at colleagues inside a multi-faith hospital prayer room.
The ruling, handed down on April 24, followed a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing held between April 13 and April 24. It found that Dr Nuri Attagour’s fitness to practise was impaired following incidents at Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in April 2023.
Tribunal members concluded his conduct amounted to religious harassment and direct discrimination under the Equality Act 2010.
The case centres on two incidents on April 19 and 20 involving Dr Attagour and two colleagues (identified as Dr A and Mr B) both Shia Muslims.
During the first incident, Mr B began reciting the call to prayer in the hospital’s shared multi-faith room. The tribunal heard that differences between Shia and Sunni versions of the call triggered Dr Attagour’s furious response.
According to Dr A’s witness statement, he interrupted aggressively, saying, “This is incorrect, you cannot do this, you guys do not believe and you are the cause of all of the problems, this is not the correct way that you should do this, you are unbelievers, and you might as well go to a Hindu or Sikh temple and pray with them. You are filthy and worship idols, the direction that you pray is wrong and you are the biggest threat to Islam.”
He also told them they should not be praying there and ordered them to leave.
Mr B backed up the account, telling the tribunal:
“We should not be praying with you, you are filthy, dirty, derogatory, infidels and disbelievers… You are not allowed to be here, you are disgusting and filthy, do not come to the prayer room, you are idol worshippers.”
The tribunal found that most of these remarks (or words to that effect) were proven.
The following day, matters escalated further when Dr Attagour confronted Mr B again in the chapel area, this time in front of witnesses including medical students.
Mr B said he was told, “You are not allowed in here, you are not a Muslim, you should not be here, you are an infidel, filthy and impure.”
He added that Dr Attagour said he did not want to be with Shia Muslims “in this life or the afterlife” and that they would be “burning in the hellfire”.
The tribunal accepted this account, finding that Dr Attagour pointed at Mr B while making the remarks.
In its findings, the panel said Dr Attagour held clear prejudicial views towards Shia Muslims, which directly influenced his behaviour.
“The evidence he gave about Shia Muslims showed that he had a prejudice towards Shia Muslims based on his own beliefs as a Sunni Muslim,” the tribunal stated.
It also rejected any suggestion the outburst was spontaneous, concluding it stemmed from entrenched views, including beliefs that Shia practices were offensive and incompatible with Sunni Islam.
In an earlier written response, Dr Attagour had said, “I told the two Shia people, to avoid coming to the prayer room when I am in there… I think that anybody talking dirty about Aisha and the companions must be dirty themselves.”
The tribunal ruled his behaviour clearly met the threshold for harassment, noting his use of terms such as “infidel” and “filthy”, and finding he had created a hostile, degrading and humiliating environment specifically targeting colleagues because of their religious sect.
It concluded his actions “violat[ed] the dignity, or creat[ed] an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment”.
Dr Attagour admitted parts of the allegations and expressed regret, telling the tribunal:
“I appreciate how my comments were offensive… I acknowledge that how they felt cannot be disputed and that my actions had the effect of creating a hostile or offensive environment for them.”
However, the panel found he had sought to downplay his conduct and was not fully credible in parts of his evidence.
He has now been suspended for three months, with the tribunal ruling that his misconduct impaired his fitness to practise.
