[3] In 1932 he became a founding committee member of the Iraqi Red Crescent Society.

[5] Shawkat led the Arab nationalist Nadi al-Muthanna[6] and advocating the expulsion of Jews from Iraq.

[7] Such claims about Dr. Shwakat's attitude toward Jews are contradicted by his personal heroism in defending Jewish patients at the Baghdad hospital where he worked.

Hayim Habousha in his account of the pogrom (Farhud) writes: On June 1, 1941, Dr. Saib Shawkat, Dean of the Baghdad Medical College, chief of surgery and administrator of Baghdad Central Hospital entered the surgery ward and scrubbed his hands getting ready to operate.

When Jewish nurses reported threats of rape by Iraqi wounded officers being treated at the hospital, Dr. Shawkat sent the officers to their beds and warned on the megaphone that anyone disobeying his order would be shot by him with two guns at his belt.