France: Muslim husband attacks gynaecologist

Nothing to do with religion, apparently.

The AP-HP hospital agency said it had taken legal proceedings against the husband for an incident that occurred on the night of September 8 in the emergency service of an unnamed Paris hospital.However the agency refused to endorse a statement by the professional association of French gynaecologists and obstetricians, who described the assault as a manifestation of "Muslim fundamentalism."

So the CNGOF believe it is related to Muslim fundamentalism as with a prior attack.

The statement by the CNGOF professional association mentioned a similar incident that occurred in a Paris-region hospital in 2003.

In both attacks, gynecologists were "physically attacked and injured by the husbands of patients on the grounds that as male doctors they should not examine their wives," the statement said.

So they seem to think it had something to do with male gynaecologists examining Muslim women, but ......

French Health Minister Xavier Bertrand on Friday condemned the September incident, but also said he could not confirm that it was related to "religious or cultural motives."

He could not - or he would not? You decide. Attacks on doctors are on the increase in Paris.

The hospital agency said that a total of 185 violent incidents had been recorded in the 38 Paris-region public hospitals in 2005, up from 145 in the previous year.

However the hospital authorities did not record whether there was any religious motive to any of the attacks, because "such records would be discriminatory, and we have a neutral position," the statement said.

Must not discriminate, must we - heavens, no. Mind you, the police on this side of the channel are only too keen to record the motive of the attack if it is considered in the least bit racist - as long as the alleged attacker is white.

In their statement the gynecologists and obstetricians made a link between the case and a recent high-profile incident in which a French schoolteacher received death threats after publishing a virulent anti-Islamic article in a national paper."

Are male gynecologists and obstetricians going to have to be protected by the police from now on when they do their job?" the statement asked. "Will they have to go into hiding like philosophy teachers?"

My guess would be that hiding would be more effective than police protection. In France, the police have enough problems protecting themselves.