Amged El Hawrani [L] Habib Zaidi [C] and Adel El Tayar [R] [Twitter] (screengrab/Twitter)
Mon 30 March 2020:
Three Muslim doctors in the UK have died of the novel coronavirus in the space of a week, amid reports that National Health Service staff are being denied basic protective equipment to carry out their duties.
The medical practitioners were immigrants of Muslim backgrounds, according to media reports.
Sudanese-born ear, nose and throat specialist Dr Amged El Hawrani died in Leicester in central England, after he had tested positive for the Covid-19 illness.
The 55-year-old had been on life support for nearly two weeks.
Hawrani’s passing followed that of Sudanese surgeon Adil El Tayar and Habib Zaidi, a GP of Pakistani origin.
Dr El Tayar, 63, previously worked in Sudan and Saudi Arabia, before returning to help the NHS cope with the coronavirus pandemic.
“He wanted to be sent where he would be most useful in the crisis,” Zeinab Badawi, a cousin of Dr El Tayar, told the BBC.
“That was typical of my cousin Adil, always willing to help, always with a willing smile. It had taken just 12 days for Adil to go from a seemingly fit and capable doctor working in a busy hospital to lying in a hospital morgue.”
Tributes were paid for the three doctors, with many pointing out that their efforts run contrary to the often negative portrayals of Muslims and immigrants in the British media.
“The next time any of you think about or say ‘bloody foreigners’ or ‘bloody Muslims’ remember this. RIP. The names of the first three Doctors who died protecting British people from the Covid-19 Amged el-Hawrani Adel el-Tayar Habib Zaidi,” wrote one Twitter user.
“Three NHS doctors have passed away due to Covid: Adil El-Tayar, Amged El-Hawrani and Habib Zaidi. Don’t want to hear Muslims being lectured on ‘British values’ again,” wrote another.
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