Building a ‘bond of respect’

There’s noquestion Muslims deal with a fair amount of stigma in the United States.Negative images in the media, combined with the instilled fear of terrorism,have left Americans wondering whom they can direct their anger and panic at. Inmany cases, the answer has been the nation’s own Muslim American communities.

But FarhaAbbasi, a resident in Michigan State University’s department of psychiatry, isaiming to change that.

Abbasi and herteam will be hosting “Why It Matters: Addressing the Myths and Realities of theRelationship Among Mental Health, Violence and Muslims” at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, April 3 inthe MSU Union Ballroom.

The conferencewill feature a number of speakers addressing hot topics around terrorism andmental health as they relate to the Muslim community. Dr. Amin A. MuhammadGadit, M.D., will cover "Terrorism and Mental Health," while the army’s firstMuslim Chaplain, Abdul-Rasheed Mhammad, will share "Lessons from Fort Hood." Other speakers will address issues of discrimination and mental health, therole of Islam in preventing violence, refugee health and the impact of negativemedia images.

It’s Abbasi’shope that the lectures will stimulate dialogue and raise awareness.

“It's soimportant to have this communication and sit down and have a dialogue,” shesaid. “This is not just about Muslims and that's what I’m trying to promotewith this conference. I personally call it a war of ignorance, which can onlybe won through awareness. The hope is that we keep using (this conference) as acommunication tool; as an ongoing dialogue.”

Part of thatdiscussion will focus on dispelling the myths surrounding homegrown terrorismin Muslim American communities. David Schanzer, co-director of the Institutefor Homeland Security Solutions at Duke University, will serve as theconference’s keynote speaker, drawing from a study he co-authored onAnti-Terror Lessons of American Muslims.

“I think thecore research question (of the study) was ‘Why don't we see as muchradicalization and violent behavior among Muslim Americans as we do in otherMuslim places in the world?’” Schanzer explained. “We wanted to look at theinternal community factors and how Muslim American communities and individualswere responding to this threat of radicalization … and seeing if we couldidentify factors that were helping them to resist this ideology.”

What Schanzerand his colleagues found was that many Muslim American communities —unbeknownst to the general public — exercise self-policing and speak out withintheir populations against terrorism or radicalization.

Moreover, thestudy shows that many Muslim Americans feel personally responsibly for acts ofterrorism committed by those in their community.

It’s a sentimentAbbasi knows all too well, and says accounts for much of the overlooked mentalhealth issues afflicting Muslim Americans. “We are, in subtle ways, reallycarrying the burden,” she said. “My coworker told me somebody rear-ended him onthe way to work and the first thing that came out of my mouth was, 'Oh, pleasetell me it was not a Muslim who did it.' I thought, 'Where did this joke comefrom?' and I realized how much pressure we carry.”

Abbasi furtherexplained that Muslim patients often suffer from post-traumatic stress disorderor other mental health issues; however, suicide rates are very low. “And ofcourse the inevitable question is: Then why do you have suicide bombers?” shesaid. “So I realized that unless I talk about the elephant in the room, we cannever go beyond that and have meaningful communication.”

However,Schanzer stressed that conversations on the issues of terrorism and violencecan never be productive unless the facts are set straight — something he hopesto accomplish with dissemination of his study. “We hope that discussions aboutthese issues are based on some sort of sense of the facts and a recognition ofwhat the true scope of the problem is so we can address these issues in arational, sensible and fair fashion.”

For Abbasi, thatmeans facing stereotypes and negative images of Muslims head-on. "Ithought the best way to deal with it was to deal with all the 'buzz words' orany derogatory comment ever affiliated with the community,” she explained.“And, of course, the first thing is what I have been talking about is thatmaybe all the terrorists on 9/11 were Muslim, but that does not mean that allthe Muslims are terrorists."

Acknowledgingthat truth, she contends, is the first step for Americans to surpass toleranceand grow to accept Muslims as part of the county’s history, culture and — mostimportantly — future. “There will always be people coming from differentcultures and different countries, bringing their issues here,” she admitted.“But once you accept them as an individual, you can go beyond thosedifferences, find the common things and have a bond of respect.”

"Why it Matters"

8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, April 3

MSU UnionBallroom

$10 MSUstudents, $25 general public, free for Statewide Campus System residents,psychiatry residents, College of Osteopathic Medicine students, MSU psychiatryfaculty, Muslim Studies Program faculty, SCS faculty and MSUCOM faculty andstaff