Interview with the Muslim Youth Helpline
Interview with Mohammed Sadiq Mamdani,
Director of the Muslim Youth Helpline
- Undertaken by Samir Al-HaidariSamir: There are many problems youth face in the West, however which would you recognize as the most important ones that we need to address immediately?
Mohammed: When we look at social problems, it is very difficult to see which causes most difficulties. At the Muslim Youth Helpline most of the young people come to us with a range of problems, there is no single problem that we can term as important, as there are a number of issues.
There are many young people who suffer initially because they did not get along well with their parents, this ruptured their family relationship resulting in them spending more time with friends who may not have a good influence. This in turn means that they might take drugs that may lead to anxiety or depression.
However, if we were to look at it in generic terms, we can say that the single issue that causes many young Muslims in the country to have problems is the cultural-religious conflict with their lives here in the West.
Samir: So this would mean that the westerners do not suffer the same social problems as young Muslims.
Mohammed: In mainstream society, all these problems exist, however they tend to be exaggerated or be culturally influenced in the Muslim community. For example, in terms of the statistics available to us about 21% of young people between the age of 12 and 15 years of age in the mainstream society have tried or continue to use drugs.
However, when compared to the Muslim community, this percentage is 30%. Mental illness tends to occur in 1 out of 4 of the population but in the Muslim community this is 1 in 3.
Samir: This is the Muslim Community in Britain?
Mohammed: Of course, and if we look at the present population, it is more staggering. In terms of the population in Britain, 1.5% of the people in this country are Muslim, however the prison population is 7.5% Muslim. This basically means that if you are a Muslim in this country, you are 5 times more likely to go to prison.
Samir: Why do young Muslims have the particular problems that they are facing today?
Mohammed: They have these problems because we as a Muslim community have not tried to understand the fact that we cannot continue to live our lives exactly in the same way, both culturally and religiously as our parents once did in the Middle East or in other parts of the world.
Samir: So it�s our culture that causes the problem? This is a clash of cultures.
Mohammed: Clash of cultures, but also a clash of religious culture, and that too has to be understood.
Samir: Can you give an example.
Mohammed: When you refer to a social life in college, generally this involves Friday night going to the pub and clubbing. Of course all these aspects for a Muslim are forbidden, and young Muslims will not turn to them, which basically means that young Muslims don�t have an alternative.
It is the failure of the Muslim community here in Britain today to provide that alternative, which means that we are leaving no option but to cause these problems to flourish. Many Muslims may then choose to take part in these un-Islamic activities and as a result of that get into trouble, many others may choose not to but they still get into trouble because of the dangers of being trapped in your own house all day long.
It�s all fine and well that we provide seminars and lectures that stimulate the mind but at the end of the day we also have to learn that education can come through social activities, through building relations with people, sports, arts and through culture. What about providing services to young people? What about providing them with religiously orientated services that they are looking for?
Most young Muslims will not use mainstream services because it either distresses them or they feel it will lead to a conflict with their religiosity.
Samir: For us to practically improve the situation, it�s very easy for us sitting here to say lets just build some social institutions. There are many institutions today which claim that they are for the youth, so isn�t this already being done?
Mohammed: The problem is we don�t understand young people. The Muslim Youth Helpline is not yet another organization, it is a vision. It is a vision that has helped many young people in this country at the end of the day.
We are there to listen to them and understand their issues, to help them solve their problems the way they need to have them solved, not by posing our own judgmental, chastising opinions on other people.
Samir: Therefore the youth know what is good for them and you help do what is good for them?
Mohammed: I�m not saying that at all. I didn�t say give them what they want without rational thinking. If a young person asked us for drugs we don�t give them drugs, but if they say �I want to get off drugs in this way, by using this treatment method�, then we will try to help them do that. If the young person says, �The solution to my problem would be by going to another school�, we will support her in her decision.
Samir: Where does Islam fit into the equation of helping young people at the Helpline?
Mohammed: All our counselors at the Muslim Youth Helpline are trained in Islamic counseling. This basically means that we use the Qur'an and Hadith as sources of information to try to understand the issues that young people face and explore feasible options in order to help them make decisions to find solutions to their problems.
Samir: One can be tackling these social problems all day and never actually get to the core of the problem. Isn�t it better to solve these problems at grass-root level rather than try to help people who may well be a lost cause?
Mohammed: I fully agree with you but as has been the case when I pick up the phone at the helpline there was one client who had just cut her wrists and the first thing she said was "It won�t stop bleeding". I will not start thinking then about why she has reached this stage, the first thing I would be thinking is to make sure that she is safe and her life is not in danger. In many ways, although it isn�t always the intention, we offer an emergency treatment service.
At this moment in time, we can provide the necessary support to help that person. Ideally speaking in the Muslim community, we have to look at the root-cause of these problems. We have to learn to educate the Muslim community, however we have reached such a bad situation at this moment in time that unless we provide the support service, some youth will be in serious danger.
Samir: So in the long term the Muslim Youth Helpline has no objective of helping the youth at the grass-root level because at the moment it only deals with emergency treatment?
Mohammed: It�s very extreme to say they have absolutely no long-term objectives.
Samir: You mean you do have long-term objectives?
Mohammed: Yes
Samir: What are your long-term objectives?
Mohammed: We hope that in the future the Helpline will� Ok the Helpline will be the emergency centre from the frontline of the service for the society but we at the Helpline have also set-up a befriending service so that we can be dealing with issues in the community at a grass-root level.
However what we hope is that each mosque or centre in the community will set-up its own support groups and referral services. At this moment in time, the Helpline is the only efficient and economic way of providing these services to a large number of people.
Samir: The befriending system is hardly what you call a long-term plan at grass-root level. This is a specific case, I asked originally if this organization has a long term plan for the benefit of the general youth in the Muslim community?
Mohammed: Our aims and objectives at the end of the day are to help distressed young people. We are an emergency Helpline.
Samir: Thank you, this means the Helpline is simply there to wait for the next victim to call...
Mohammed: [Cuts in] That is not true. We have actually made plans at the moment and found that particularly within the Iraqi community amongst sisters there is a problem of self-harm and suicidal behavior. We are trying to organize with difficulty because of the active opposition within the Iraqi community, you see the work of the Helpline hasn�t been without problems as there has been a continuous opposition with anger from some people.
Nevertheless, we are trying to organize for an educational programme to take place in different mosques that are common among the Iraqi community.
The truth of the matter is that at this moment in time many of the adults look into our service and do not support the work that we do. There is a general apathy to deal with these issues. The only people that we work with at this moment are the young people themselves, and we can only take things one step at a time to achieve our objectives.
This is not a small issue, we cannot quickly solve it without the support of the community. Until the Muslim community actually admits that there is a problem, it won�t be able to resolve it.
Samir: Whose responsibility is it to tackle the problems of young Muslims on a broader level?
Mohammed: This is the responsibility of the wider Muslim community that is able to do so. The Helpline has exceptionally limit resources, we can only respond to a problem based on how much resources we have.
If the community continues to undermine our activities and stigmatize and spread rumors about our work, then we are in no position to be able to go forward. The people who can truly influence change are the leaders of the community and in many ways the mosques and Islamic centres because they deal with the masses. We are very much behind the scenes because we do not work in front of the people.
Samir: What is your view on dealing with homosexuality within the community?
Mohammed: I�d like to say that so far in the Muslim community there seems to be a reputation that the helpline has in dealing with homosexuality. This is unfair because homosexuality is just one of the many issues that young people contact us to discuss.
So first of all I�d like to say to everyone that the condemnation that we receive because people contact us on this issue is not fair, because we see as the rest of Muslims that homosexuality is against the tendencies of Islam and we are there to help people avoid committing sin.
Samir: Is it not easier to simply condemn homosexuality to avoid it spreading?
Mohammed: Condemning doesn�t resolve the conflict within the person�s mind when they are thinking about their sexual orientation.
Samir: Doesn�t it help the masses from avoiding it?
Mohammed: Condemning it only teaches them that it is haram in Islam, but when someone thinks he/she is homosexual there is no option but to deal with the problem because condemning it doesn�t do anything. Simple counseling methods often help resolve the problem that some youth face.
Let�s face it most Muslims know that just as alcohol is forbidden, so is homosexuality.
Samir: Why are there organizations such as Al-Fatiha?
Mohammed: Lets remember that organizations like that exist because there is not enough support service available to those people who think they are homosexual or at least say they are.
Al-Fatiha is essentially brought together by a group of people in conflict. The Muslim community is to blame for these organizations to exist because they failed to provide a support service.
Samir: Most of the people with social problems come with a certain identity, a certain dress code, and a certain outlook on life. If they come to the Islamic center they will be influencing other people, this is possibly why we have such a barrier and isolation today.
Mohammed: That�s not an excuse to be intolerant. Homosexuality is not contagious by any means, its not a disease. Its not likely that homosexual people attending mosque will propagate their orientation inside, that�s just bizarre in all honestly.
To change a community takes time. The ethos of education works on an individual level. When a certain person comes with a problem, one should encourage him to come to the mosque and be part of the congregation and influence him to be the person he should be.
Its only because we as Muslims are unable to influence other people positively that we are worried that other people may influence ourselves negatively. That is the real problem.
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