Unite. Inspire. Serve.
This is the vision of the British Islamic Medical Association (BIMA), established on the 22nd of June 2013 at the Markfield Institute near Leicester, where over 100 healthcare professionals from all over Britain gathered to revive efforts to organise the Muslim healthcare community. BIMA was formed to meet the growing and unmet needs of the hundreds of thousands of Muslim healthcare professionals and students in Britain, who are becoming increasingly visible and active in their work and communities.
We now have a fast-growing membership of over 2,500 healthcare professionals and are engaged in numerous projects and workstreams, including JBIMA – our academic journal to highlight issues facing Muslims in their health, care and wellbeing. As we embark on this journey to address the inequalities and opportunities facing our communities, it is a timely opportunity to take stock of our progress.
Organising busy healthcare professionals and medical students is no easy task, especially with the resources of a voluntary organisation. However, we have been blessed with opportunities and abilities to make meaningful contributions in many facets of our professional, community and spiritual lives. BIMA has always valued our democratic principles, led by our membership in not only matters of policy, but also financially and operationally. We are proud to be an organisation that represents all professions, specialities, grades, ethnicities and geographies. At its heart BIMA is simply a collective of inspirited individuals with purpose.
Effective representation and meaningful change comes from being rooted to the communities we serve. This is why the majority of BIMA outreach projects are organised nationally but delivered in partnership with local Muslim institutions. We are proud to be working closely with the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), the Federation of Islamic Medical Associations (FIMA), and numerous other Muslim NGOs to achieve our vision. We have partnered with mainstream health institutions too: from national NHS bodies and governmental bodies, major international charities, and interfaith organisations to deliver for our members and communities.
We have engaged with hundreds of mosques and Islamic centres to deliver programmes on basic life support, cancer screening, diabetes, mental health, organ donation, and long-term conditions management. We have trained hundreds of young clinicians and provided career orientation courses and webinars. We have produced materials to make Ramadan a safer experience with education courses for prescribers and the public. We have lobbied the NHS bodies on the rights of Muslim women to observe hijab in theatres and improve dress code policies, and have petitioned the government to protect the vulnerable from doctor assisted suicide legislation. We are organising a medical relief mission in partnership with international NGOs. We have organised conferences, webinars, seminars and socials to meet the needs of professionals, patients and the community. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and more details of our achievements and projects can be found on our website and social media channels.
There is more to come – in sha’ Allah, God willing. We hope you will join us on this journey.
The 6 aims of BIMA
- To promote better understanding and appreciation of principles and values of Islam amongst all healthcare professionals
- To protect and promote the health of patients and the public by adhering to fundamentals of Islamic ethics and good clinical practice
- To encourage professional and social interaction amongst Muslim healthcare professionals and with the wider clinical community in the UK
- To promote research and education in the field of medicine, Islamic medical history and bioethics
- To engage our professional skills in charitable activities locally and globally to help the needy irrespective of colour, faith or creed
- To advise and support Muslim healthcare professionals and students in career development, orientation and other work-related issues
