KARACHI, Nov 14: Extreme sense of deprivation, anger, humiliation and helplessness besides lack of education, opportunities and discrimination are some of the main factors and causes, compelling Muslim youth to adopt the course of violence.
These views were expressed by mental health experts at an international conference on Tuesday. The International Conference 2006 to address the issues and finding solution of violence and mental health conditions in the Muslim World was organised by the Institute of Clinical Psychology, University of Karachi, at its Arts Auditorium.
They observed that in the recent years, especially in the aftermath of 9/11, aggression level of Muslim youth in the third world countries had increased manifolds due to injustices, wars, oppression and brutalities against the Muslim populations around the world.
The conference divided into two technical sessions titled “Emerging global scenario: survival of Muslim youth in the realm of violence”, and “Mental health of children, adolescents and adults: etiology, prevalence and treatment” was addressed by senior psychiatrists and mental health experts from local as well as foreign institutes.
At the first technical session, Lord Shaukat Nawaz Khan, CEO Asia Link Network and vice-president International Health Foundation, UK spoke on the factors and causes compelling Muslim youth to resort to violence and termed lack of education and economic deprivation as the main factors behind creating violent tendencies.
He attributed tendency of violence among youth to a variety of factors instead of religious teachings as being portrayed by the Western media and called for initiating a process of dialogue and understanding the feelings of Muslims instead of marginalising them.
According to him, Muslim youth too were being subjected to mental violence, though different from physical violence but have the same affect as in the case of Vietnam, where thousands of innocent Vietnamese youth were kept in cages for years, who later become a threat for the US and pro-US forces.
He suggested that social, cultural and political empowerment of Muslim youth, access to equal education, employment and business opportunities besides presenting true perspective of Islam through media could help eradicating misconceptions about Islam and Muslims.
Another visiting psychiatrist, Dr Ahmed Ali Khan, professor emeritus and NHS consultant psychiatrist, in his presentation declared suicide bombers, as ‘possibly mentally ill’.
However, during the question answer session, he evaded some questions regarding why Muslim youth, especially suicide bombers, were being declared mentally ill by him and majority of Western psychiatrists and scholars, while the brutal anti-human acts of Israeli, US, British, Russian and other occupying forces in Muslim countries were being justified on the pretext of self-defence.
Dr Murad A. Moosa, chairman of Psychiatry at the Aga Khan University spoke on “Suicide in Pakistan: Is Islam no longer a deterrent”.
During the second technical session, titled “Mental health of children, adolescents and adults: etiology, prevalence and treatment”, seven papers were presented. The session was chaired by Dr Ahmed Ali Khan.
Dr Amina Tareen, consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist from London, UK presented her paper on “ Non fat-phobic anorexia nervosa in British South Asian Adolescents” while Dr Najma Najam, VC FJWU, Islamabad on “Dream contents: reflection of the emotional and psychological states of earthquake survivors”.
The third paper of the session was presented by Dr M Ghalib Hussain from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi on “Violence and mental health of youth in India” while Dr Naghmeh Mokhber from Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Iran presented her paper on “Depressive sympatomatology in schoolchildren of Tehran-Iran and its relation to function of their families”.
Dr Nosheen Rahman, Dr Nurjahan Begum from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhiand Dr Farah Qadri, from Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK also presented their papers on covering a wide range of issues.
At the inaugural session of the conference, the vice-chancellor of the KU, Dr Pirzada Qasim, said that Islam was a religion of peace and its followers believed in peace but after the 9/11, the western media was playing a negative role to depict a wrong picture of Islam and Muslims.
He said that such conferences should be held regularly.
Sindh Minister for Environment Dr Sagheer Ahmed Siddiqui and dean of the KU Arts faculty, Dr Shamsuddin also spoke. During the concluding session of the conference, certificates and shields were distributed among presenters and organisers of the moot.—PPI
