In response to a book review by Dr. Joseph H. McIsaac III that appeared in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) 2008; 300(6):734-735, where Dr. McIsaac commented on the book “ Jihad and American Medicine: Thinking Like a Terrorist to Anticipate Attacks Via Our Health System ” by Adam Frederic Dorin , NAAMA joined other ethnic medical associations in criticizing some of the conclusions of the book and its review and issued the following letter to the editor of JAMA:
To the Editor-In-Chief of JAMA, Dr. DeAngelis:
On behalf of the National Arab American Medical Association (NAAMA), I would like to express my concern about your book review by Joseph H. McIsaac III, MD, MS on the book entitled, Jihad and American Medicine: Thinking Like a Terrorist to Anticipate Attacks Via Our Health System by Adam Frederic Dorin.
The book challenges the “assumption of trust” and notes that allegedly, a group of “…several Middle-Eastern physicians stood around the lone television and cheered. . . . Those doctors, who jumped for joy upon seeing the carnage of the Twin Towers in New York, and the attack on the Pentagon, are still among us.”
Such imagery of Muslim and Arab physicians is not only dangerous, but casts doubt on the tens of thousands of Arab American and American Muslim health professionals who have served and continue to serve American patients with the same professionalism, compassion, and humanism as other colleagues in the medical community.
This book, and Dr. McIssac’s review of it, perpetuate racial profiling and unfairly target Arab American and American Muslim health care professionals as a “fifth column” laying in wait to cause death and destruction in the American health care system. While aspects of the book and review have validity, I caution strongly against focusing on one segment of the medical community. We all want our medical supplies and services to be secure. However, criminals wishing to attack the American healthcare system are not of a single ethnic or religious background. Regrettably, even the title of this book suggests otherwise. Additionally, Dr. McIssac did not appear to challenge some of the most fundamental assumptions and illustrations that cast aspersions against Arab American or American Muslim health care professionals.
We hope that in the future, JAMA refrains from uncritically reviewing books that have clearly discriminatory overtones. As doctors, we all want American health care to be the best and safest in the world. To suggest otherwise is disingenuous, inappropriate, and unfair.
Sincerely,
Nabil Khoury, MD, FACEP, FACP
President, NAAMA
