LONDON: Araf Saddiq, the first Muslim and South Asian to work for the Scottish Ambulance Service, has spoken of the years of racist abuse he suffered while doing his job.
The 57-year-old paramedic, from Chapelhall in Lanarkshire, who was born in the UK to Pakistani parents, expressed pride in being the first person of his background to join the service, the Daily Record newspaper reported. However, despite the fact he was working to help his community, Saddiq said he endured several incidents of racist abuse.
“It happens in different ways — people won’t look at you or talk to you, even if you are the attending clinician; you are asking the questions but they won’t look at you,” he told the newspaper.
“I have been called racist names a number of times. But I was assaulted about 11 years ago.”
In 2010, Saddiq was called a “terrorist” by a man he was taking to hospital, who then attacked him.
“I took a person into hospital and attended to him,” he said. “He didn’t say much in the back of the ambulance but once I got him through the doors, into the hospital and on a chair, he just turned round and called me a ‘black, terrorist b******.’
“I started laughing and, before I knew it, he was off his chair in A&E, punching and kicking me. My colleague jumped in and tried to get him off but I ended up with a few injuries. I dislocated my shoulder and I had a knee injury. It was a pretty vicious attack and it affected me for quite a while afterwards because you think all sorts of things afterwards.
“This guy had such a hatred for my color, even though I was caring and looking after him, that he attacked me, and if he had a knife he would have used it. I had a young family and those kinds of things go through your head, and because of that I took a two-year career break.
“That shows how much it affected me. I have never understood hatred like that or how people can hate you because of what color you are.”
After the attack, Saddiq’s wife, Aysha, a teacher, was offered a job with the Abu Dhabi education department, so he moved with her and their children to the UAE. They returned to Scotland a few years later.
“I was quite down at the time,” he said. “I looked after the kids but after two years I was keen to get going again.”
Saddiq was awarded the Queen's Ambulance Medal in the 2021 New Year’s Honors for his community work.
