A state regulatory board has indicated that it plans to reject a plan to build a Muslim-friendly surgery center in Orland Park.
But several board members said this week that they sympathize with a problem they hadn’t realized exists: The discomfort that followers of Islam — especially modesty-conscious Muslim women — feel about using hospitals and outpatient medical centers in the Chicago area.
Meeting in Bolingbrook on Tuesday, the board voted unanimously, with one member absent, that it “intends to reject” the application. The issue will come back to the board for a final decision in June or August.
Wearing a modesty scarf over her hair, Gihad Ali, of the Arab-American Action Network, told the board that after her mother was diagnosed with cancer, her mother was appalled that when she went to a hospital for treatments, male medical personnel and other patients could see her in various stages of undress. She also had to miss many of her normal five-times-a-day prayers because the hospital had no facilities for the ceremonial washing needed beforehand, she said.
DOES HER MOTHER HAVE A FOOT WASHING STATION IN HER HOUSE?EVERY HOSPITAL ROOM HAS BATHROOM WHY DIDN'T SHE WASH THERE? EVERY HOSPITALS HAS A ROOM STRICTLY FOR RELIGIOUS PURPOSES WHY DIDN'T SHE ASK TO BE TAKEN THERE?EVERY HOSPITAL BED HAS PRIVACY CURTAINS WHY DIDN'T SHE CLOSE THOSE?
READ MORE
http://southtownstar.suntimes.com/20137016-522/state-board-denies-muslim-surgicenter-in-orland-park.html