AFTER photographs emerged of a meeting between Muslim chaplain Suliman Gani, above, and Afghanistan’s Taliban Minister of Foreign Affairs Amir Khan Muttaqi, inset above, the National Secular Society raised questions over Gani’s suitability to remain in the employ of the National Health Service.
In a letter to St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust the NSS—Britain’s leading advocate for separation of church and state—said the meeting “casts serious doubt on Gani’s judgement” and “raises grave questions about his suitability to work as an NHS chaplain at public expense”.
NHS chaplains in England earn a whopping £37,994 ($44.000) per year. That’s 19 percent above the national average.
NSS campaigns officer Alejandro Sanchez said:
It is deeply troubling that an NHS chaplain, employed at public expense to care for vulnerable people in hospital, is meeting with Taliban officials. We are also disturbed by Gani’s record of wildly homophobic and misogynistic statements. The UK Board of Healthcare Chaplaincy’s code of conduct requires chaplains to ‘uphold the reputation of healthcare chaplaincy’. The trust must now think very carefully about whether his conduct is in keeping with this.
Muttaqi has been described as “a key figure in the Taliban’s ideological projects” and as more “extreme on social issues than most of the Taliban”. He is subject to economic and travel sanctions by the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee.
In its response, the trust said “we appreciate your concerns” and they:
intend to meet with Imam Gani on his return to better understand the circumstances surrounding his visit and any potential implications.
The trust said it it believed the cleric was on an aid mission.
Professor Anthony Glees, a security and intelligence expert at the University of Buckingham, said the meeting was:
All part of the Taliban’s ‘out-reach’ programme. It might be that [Gani] is misguided, and his aid mission is being exploited by the Taliban. If that is the case, then he is a useful idiot for this regime.
Gani: homosexuality “unnatural”, women “subservient”
In 2013, it was reported that Gani had described homosexuality as “unnatural” on television.
He said:
If somebody does come to me and say that they have this inclination, then I will say think about the consequence of your action, how harmful it is for yourself and the society at large.
Abstain from that unnatural act, and you make that firm resolution that you will never return to that action again.
Gani has also said women are “subservient” to men, adding any that:
Countries that entrust their affairs in the hands of women will not be successful.
On the same evening that Islamic State killed 130 people in a series of attacks in Paris in 2015, Gani appeared at an event in Bedford where speakers are reported to have told British Muslims to “struggle” for an “Islamic state”.
A year later Gani successfully sued then Defence Secretary Michael Fallon who accused him of being a supporter of Daesh/Islamic State.
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The academic, Anthony Glees, of Buckingham University is being very gullible and naiive if he thinks Gani is simply “misguided” and a “useful idiot” for the Taliban. That’s just handing this disgusting individual a “get-out-of-jail-free” card. He is fully aware of the poison he is spreading and 100% on-message for his vile creed. Clearly, he is unfit for any post within the NHS and we need politicians with some balls to insist on his swift removal.
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