The community of the most northerly parish on the Shetland mainland has been left bitterly divided over the suspension of a local doctor who distributed a controversial religious pamphlet to his patients which critics claim is highly offensive to Muslims.
Dr Mick Russon, who has been an associate GP at the Hillswick health centre since 2004, was suspended by the Shetland Health Board after he sent out a 46-page booklet, entitled Proclamation, to more than 200 people in the parish of Northmavine. The health authority took the disciplinary action after receiving a complaint from a member of the public. His case has now been referred to the General Medical Council.
The pamphlet makes no direct reference to the Islamic faith, but critics claim that Dr Russon’s repeated references to a “Babylonian Moon God” and Satan are a thinly veiled attack on Allah and that he is asserting that Islam is Satanic.
Dr Russon states in the pamphlet: “Satan is the Babylonian Moon God; a cult that has become probably the most oppressive of women throughout time. There are probably more people worshipping the Moon God at this moment in time than at any previous time in the history of mankind; it is probable that most who follow him do so out of fear and not reverence.
“As each successive world empire has reached its height, it is largely the conflict between politics and finance that brings it down. We have seen this only too well in recent days, when the buildings that represented the centre of global trade were destroyed by those who carry the symbols of the Babylonian Moon God. I of course refer to the events now universally referred to as 9/11.”