Mental health no longer taboo in Muslim communities, say UK specialists 

There has been a significant increase in the number of people accessing mental health services in the last year, according to the UK National Health Service. (Shutterstock)
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Updated 11 March 2022
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Mental health no longer taboo in Muslim communities, say UK specialists 

  • The pandemic has made mental health more visible, while mental health issues have increased as a result of COVID and its implications, experts say
  • Supporting Humanity charity says they have seen a sharp increase in calls to their helpline in the last 3 months

LONDON: Discussing mental health is becoming more acceptable among Muslim communities in Britain and misconceptions are being properly addressed, experts have claimed.
“Mental health has been around for a long time, but we have not accepted it or actually sought help, and now we need to get minority communities in the UK, and globally, to understand that mental health is not a stigma, it’s not black magic or jinn possession, it is actually an illness,” Mohammed Kothia, an emotional support specialist, told Arab News.
“There’s a realization now that it’s ok to not be ok, it’s better to speak and address the problems one has, rather than suffer in silence or brush it under the carpet,” he said.
Another common misconception is that non-religious mental health professionals will impose their views on you and undermine your Islamic beliefs, Kothia added.
Muslim communities tend to go spiritual healers who may have no mental health background, rather than skilled, qualified professionals who have ethical obligations and a code of conduct.
“It’s important to seek help in the correct place, and I think as a community, maybe we have failed at times to do that,” he said, adding: “If Islam and your spirituality is an important factor in your life, then you should have an open discussion with your therapist or counselor.”
Kothia said that Muslims have the same issues as everyone else.
For example, the COVID-19 outbreak and lockdowns have caused stress, anxiety, depression and isolation to affect all groups. Families have struggled with death and grieving, especially when they were unable to see loved ones during the final stages of their lives or to perform normal funeral rites due to government restrictions.
Kothia said financial implications may become more severe in the months to come due to the pandemic, a rise in inflation, unemployment — especially among youth — cost of living, and a worsening energy crisis.
Personal wellbeing in the UK during the first and second wave of the pandemic was among the lowest levels in a decade, the Office for National Statistics said in its annual report earlier this month.
There has been a significant increase in the number of people accessing mental health services in the last year, according to the UK National Health Service, and as a result, a number of charities and organizations have taken a proactive focus to address the core of the problem.
Kothia, who is also heavily involved at his local mosque in east London and sees the issues in the community firsthand, said in the last five years, there had also been a massive rise in Muslim and other minority counselors and emotional support volunteers that are “breaking barriers,” and the next stage is to get more Muslim specialists in the field.
The other positive is the youth are now being taught about mental health, with hopes that it will not be stigmatized.
This comes down to education, Kothia said, which is why “awareness in the Muslim community and the wider society, will lead to more of us working in the field, and the more awareness we can bring to our communities, then naturally, that collective work will lead to a positive outcome.”




Muslim communities tend to go spiritual healers who may have no mental health background, rather than skilled, qualified professionals who have ethical obligations and a code of conduct. (Shutterstock)

The London-based mental health and bereavement charity Supporting Humanity runs a free emotional support helpline, and said in the last three months they have seen a sharp increase in calls.
Many people feel they are not heard and are worried of being judged, so the key is active listening, anonymity and confidentiality, Kothia, who also volunteers at the helpline, said. “We underestimate the power of lending an ear and listening.”
Supporting Humanity, which was set up at the start of the pandemic and has trained nearly 30 people to be mental health advisers, said the elderly were among their top callers.
“The pandemic has left a lasting impact on our elderly, and their anxiety and depression levels, and I think the government hasn’t addressed this issue that ‘shielding’ has had a massive impact on our society,” Kothia said.
Levels of loneliness in Britain have increased since last spring, and 5 percent of people (about 2.6 million adults) said that they felt lonely “often” or “always,” and that proportion increased to 7.2 percent of the adult population (about 3.7 million) by February, the ONS said in April.
“Some of them have been struggling for years and they talk about how they thought about committing suicide numerous times, how they trap themselves in a room because they’re embarrassed or scared to go and talk to other people, there’s so many people out there with various different mental health issues,” said Idris Patel, the charity’s CEO.
He also said more marketing campaigns and outreach programs are needed in community centers, schools and universities, businesses, GP surgeries as well as religious centers and mosques as they are “catchment areas” for people who are suffering or contemplating suicide.
The charity also regularly trains imams to explain the differences between black magic and mental health, directing people to professionals and charities, and highlighting free services.
Suicide and attempted suicide rates in the Muslim community have increased, particularly among youth, which account for half of the British Muslim population. A report released in July by the Better Community Business Network, a Muslim-led organization supporting mental health and positive wellbeing of Muslim communities across the UK, in partnership with the University of East London, found that 64 percent of Muslim youth said they experience suicidal thoughts and nearly one-fifth said they had turned to no one when undergoing difficulties.
Addiction is another major issue, Patel said, as parents are not tackling the root of the problem, are embarrassed to admit their child has a drug or alcohol problem, and do not seek professional help. So is domestic violence, he added.




Idris Patel, CEO of Supporting Humanity, was awarded the British Citizen Awards and the British Empire Medal by Queen Elizabeth II in October for his work in the community. (Supplied/Supporting Humanity)

Shamam Chowdhury was introduced to the charity after her 22 year-old son was murdered and needed funeral services, and was also introduced to mental health and emotional support.
British-Bangladeshi Mohammed Aqil Mahdi, an accounting and finance student at Greenwich University, was found stabbed to death in east London on Nov. 6. An online fund has been set up in his memory to raise money for a mosque in Egypt.
“I was very overwhelmed because I’ve never been in this kind of situation and one, I’ve just lost my son, which was shocking itself, and second, not knowing or understanding anything,” she said.
With police inspectors contacting her for statements, and then finding out she would not be able to see her son until after the postmortem examination, the 45 year-old single mother felt lost and alone.
The charity stepped in and handled all the paperwork, logistics, postmortem, the ghusl (the washing process Muslims have to undertake before burial), the burial and the funeral (janazah) prayer, as part of the end-to-end bereavement services its offers to help people focus on grieving.
“When you are in that kind of situation where you’ve just lost, I would say, your most valuable thing in this world, and then being in a situation where you have no clue how to go about these things,” she said, describing the torment of her experiences, but added that an emotional support adviser made her feel “like there was a light at the end of the tunnel.” 
She continued: “(The counselor) would take his time in the conversation to give me that emotional support, just simply by listening, asking simple questions like ‘how are you feeling today?’ And then from the Islamic side, he would give examples of hadith or Qur’anic verses that gave me comfort and content, it made a huge difference and it gave me confidence,” Chowdhury said.




British-Bangladeshi Mohammed Aqil Mahdi, an accounting and finance student at Greenwich University, was found stabbed to death in east London on Nov. 6. (Supplied/Shamam Chowdhury)

Describing herself as a strong woman, and the family sharing a tight-knit, unique bond, his sudden death hit them quite hard, having never experienced mental health issues before, the whole situation was unfamiliar to them.
Chowdhury also received emotional support for her two daughters, Anjuman, 25, and Hidayah, 10, and the eldest also became involved in some of the charity’s work, “because helping others meant that would help her to overcome it as well.”
She added that she has no problem paying for mental health services, but thinks the majority of services give “false hope,” charge extremely high prices, and in most cases don’t produce qualitative results.
Chowdhury, who is self-employed and has been teaching the Qur’an for 18 years, said talking, sharing and getting that support is so important, and urged people not to be afraid and not to let society take over.
“Our Muslim society plays a big role in people seeking help, because they make them feel it’s something that you should just get on with (and) we all feel sometimes that seeking help, or seeking support, or sharing is a sign of weakness, but it’s not, it’s is actually a sign of strength.”


UK appoints Blaise Metreweli first woman head of MI6 spy service

A general view of the headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, in London, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP)
Updated 9 sec ago
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UK appoints Blaise Metreweli first woman head of MI6 spy service

  • The MI6 chief is the only publicly named member of the organization and reports directly to the foreign minister

LONDON: The UK government has appointed Blaise Metreweli as the first-ever woman to head its MI6 spy service as the country faces “threats on an unprecedented scale,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Sunday.
The MI6 Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) achieved global fame through Ian Fleming’s fictional agent James Bond.
Metreweli will be the 18th head of the service, Starmer’s Downing Street office said in a statement.
“The historic appointment of Blaise Metreweli comes at a time when the work of our intelligence services has never been more vital,” Starmer said.
“The United Kingdom is facing threats on an unprecedented scale — be it aggressors who send their spy ships to our waters or hackers whose sophisticated cyber plots seek to disrupt our public services,” he added.
The MI6 chief is the only publicly named member of the organization and reports directly to the foreign minister.
The person in the post is referred to as “C” — not “M” as in the James Bond franchise, which already had a woman, played by Judi Dench, in the role.
Metreweli will take over from outgoing MI6 head Richard Moore in the autumn.
Currently, she is MI6’s director general — known as “Q” — with responsiblity for technology and innovation at the service, the statement said.
She is described as a career intelligence officer who joined the service in 1999 having studied anthropology at Cambridge University.
Metreweli held senior roles at both MI6 and the MI5 domestic intelligence service and spent most of her career in “operational roles in the Middle East and Europe,” the statement added, without giving further biographical details.
The appointment comes over three decades after MI5 appointed its first female chief.
Stella Rimington held the position from 1992-1996, followed by Eliza Manningham-Buller from 2002-2007.
The UK intelligence and security organization GCHQ appointed its first woman chief, Anne Keast-Butler, in 2023.
 

 


Macron rejects Trump’s idea for Putin to mediate Israel-Iran crisis

Updated 46 min 36 sec ago
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Macron rejects Trump’s idea for Putin to mediate Israel-Iran crisis

  • “Greenland is not to be sold, not to be taken,” he said, adding that he has spoken with Trump ahead of his trip, and would speak with him about Greenland at the G7

PARIS/COPENHAGEN: French President Emmanuel Macron, during a visit to Greenland to offer his support to the Arctic island, said on Sunday that Russia lacked the credibility to mediate the crisis between Israel and Iran as US President Donald Trump has suggested.
In an interview with ABC News on Sunday, Trump said he was open to Putin, whose forces invaded Ukraine and who has resisted Trump’s attempts to broker a ceasefire with Kyiv, mediating between Israel and Iran. Macron said he rejected such an idea.
“I do not believe that Russia, which is now engaged in a high-intensity conflict and has decided not to respect the UN Charter for several years now, can be a mediator,” Macron said.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Macron is first foreign leader to visit since Trump threats

• Macron says his visit is show of European solidarity

• French president invited by leaders of Greenland and Denmark

He also said France did not take part in any of Israel’s attacks against Iran.
Macron was visiting Greenland, a self-governing part of Denmark with the right to declare independence that Trump has threatened to take over, ahead of a trip to Canada for the Group of Seven Leaders’ summit.
In a press conference alongside Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Macron said the island was threatened by “predatory ambition,” and that its situation was a wakeup call for all Europeans.
“Greenland is not to be sold, not to be taken,” he said, adding that he has spoken with Trump ahead of his trip, and would speak with him about Greenland at the G7. “I think there is a way forward in order to clearly build a better future in cooperation and not in provocation or confrontation.”
However, Macron said he ultimately doubted the United States would invade Greenland.
“I don’t believe that in the end, the US, which is an ally and a friend, will ever do something aggressive against another ally,” he said, adding he believed “the United States of America remains engaged in NATO and our key and historical alliances.”
Trump has said he wants the United States to take over the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island, and has not ruled out force. His vice president, JD Vance, visited a US military base there in March. Macron is the first foreign leader to visit Greenland since Trump’s explicit threats to “get” the island.
According to an IFOP poll for NYC.eu published on Saturday, 77 percent of French people and 56 percent of Americans disapprove of an annexation of Greenland by the US and 43 percent of the French would back using French military power to prevent a US invasion.
Denmark’s Frederiksen made several visits to Paris after Trump’s threats to seek French and European backing, and has placed orders for French-made surface-to-air missiles, in a shift of focus for Copenhagen.

 


Russia says it struck oil refinery that supplies Ukrainian army with fuel

Updated 56 min 27 sec ago
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Russia says it struck oil refinery that supplies Ukrainian army with fuel

  • President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the attack on the central Poltava region as a vile strike against Ukrainian energy infrastructure

MOSCOW: Russian forces carried out an overnight strike on the Kremenchuk oil refinery that supplies fuel to Ukrainian forces in the Donbas region, Russia’s defense ministry said on Sunday.
President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the attack on the central Poltava region as a vile strike against Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
“Unfortunately, there was damage to the energy infrastructure,” Zelensky said in his evening address to the nation.
“This is Russia’s (effort to) spit on everything that the international community is trying to do to stop this war.” He said it occurred “after the Americans asked us not to strike at Russian energy facilities.”
The Russian defense ministry’s statement said that missiles had been fired at the refinery in Ukraine’s Poltava region from both sea and air and that strike drones were also used in what it said had been a successful attack.
Russia has claimed Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region as its own and controls most of its two regions, Donetsk and Luhansk. Ukraine is fighting to stop Russia from taking control of the rest of Donbas and has said it plans to retake territory it has lost, through a combination of force and diplomacy.
The Russian Defense Ministry said separately that its forces had taken control of the village of Malynivka in the Donetsk region, known in Russia as Ulyanovka.
It also said its forces had advanced deep into enemy defenses in Ukraine’s Sumy region and inflicted heavy losses on Ukrainian units there. Sumy is not one of the regions Russia has formally claimed as its own, but it has spoken of creating a buffer zone there. Zelensky said on Saturday that Ukrainian forces had recaptured Andriivka village in northeastern Sumy as part of a drive to expel Russian forces from the area.
He said Russia has amassed 53,000 troops in the vicinity.


EU foreign ministers to discuss Israel-Iran conflict on Tuesday

People run along a street amid smoke following the Israeli strikes on Iran, in Tehran, Iran, June 15, 2025. (Reuters)
Updated 15 June 2025
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EU foreign ministers to discuss Israel-Iran conflict on Tuesday

  • The emergency call was organized as Iran and Israel broadened exchanges of missile and drone strikes against each other

BRUSSELS: EU foreign ministers will meet by video link on Tuesday to discuss the Iran-Israel conflict and “possible next steps” aimed at bringing about a de-escalation, an official for the bloc’s foreign policy chief said.
“In light of the gravity of the situation in the Middle East, EU High Representative Kaja Kallas has convened a meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers via video link for Tuesday,” said the official in her office on Sunday.
The emergency call was organized as Iran and Israel broadened exchanges of missile and drone strikes against each other.
The conflict, triggered on Friday by a surprise Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear and military targets, has led to a mounting death toll on both sides.
The EU ministers’ meeting “will provide an opportunity for an exchange of views, coordination on diplomatic outreach to Tel Aviv and Tehran, and possible next steps,” the official in Kallas’s office said.
The official underlined that the European Union was committed to “regional security and de-escalation” and would expend “all diplomatic efforts to reduce tensions and to find a lasting solution to the Iranian nuclear issue which can only be through a negotiated deal.”


Tens of thousands rally in Dutch protest for Gaza

Updated 15 June 2025
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Tens of thousands rally in Dutch protest for Gaza

  • “More than 150,000 people here dressed in red — and a clear majority of the Dutch population — just want concrete sanctions to stop the genocide in Gaza,” said Michiel Servaes, director of Oxfam Novib
  • Rights groups such as Amnesty International and Oxfam organize massive demonstration

THE HAGUE: Tens of thousands of people dressed in red marched through the streets of The Hague on Sunday to demand more action from the Dutch government against what they termed a “genocide” in Gaza.

Rights groups such as Amnesty International and Oxfam organized the demonstration to the International Court of Justice through the city, creating a so-called “red line.”
With many waving Palestinian flags and some chanting “Stop the Genocide,” the demonstrators turned a central park in the city into a sea of red on a sunny afternoon.
One of the organizing groups, Oxfam Novib, estimated that 150,000 people participated in the march. Dutch police generally do not give estimates of demonstration turnouts.
Protesters brandished banners reading “Don’t look away, do something,” “Stop Dutch complicity,” and “Be silent when kids sleep, not when they die.”
Organizers urged the Dutch government — which collapsed on June 3 after a far-right party pulled out of a fragile coalition — to do more to rein in Israel for its military offensive on the Palestinian territory.
“More than 150,000 people here dressed in red — and a clear majority of the Dutch population — just want concrete sanctions to stop the genocide in Gaza,” said Michiel Servaes, director of Oxfam Novib.
“We demand action now from our government,” added Servaes.
Dodo Van Der Sluis, a 67-year-old pensioner, said: “It has to stop. Enough is enough. I can’t take it anymore.”
“I’m here because I think it’s maybe the only thing you can do now as a Dutch citizen, but it’s something you have to do,” she added.
A previous protest in The Hague on May 18 drew more than 100,000 people, according to organizers, who described it as the country’s largest demonstration in 20 years.
Prime Minister Dick Schoof wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “To all those people in The Hague I say: we see you and we hear you.”
“In the end, our goal is the same: to end the suffering in Gaza as soon as possible.”
The Gaza war was sparked by the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
The Health Ministry in Gaza says Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 55,207 people, the majority of them civilians.
The International Court of Justice is currently weighing a case brought by South Africa against Israel, arguing its actions in Gaza breach the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.
Thousands of demonstrators protested across France on Saturday in support of Palestinians and calling for peace in Gaza.
Protesters criticized France’s stance on the conflict, branding it conciliatory or even “complicit” with the Israeli government.
French trade unions, left-wing parties and pro-Palestinian activist groups called for a global weekend of protests against Israel’s offensive in the territory.
In Paris, where the largest march took place, police counted 9,000 demonstrators, while the CGT trade union and hard-left party France Unbowed said 150,000 attended the gathering.
Thousands of people also rallied in the cities of Marseille, Toulouse and Rennes.
European Parliament member Rima Hassan called on supporters to “deviate, disobey and take all necessary actions to enforce international law, to put an end to genocide.”
She recently spent three days in a detention centre in Israel after attempting to breach its blockade of Gaza on a boat with other activists.
“We don’t want what is happening in Gaza to be silenced. Every day we hear that 30, 60 people have died. It has become routine, we don’t see it anymore and I’m afraid that with what’s happening with Iran, it will become even more invisible,” said one protester.