Demonizing Islam and Muslims Can Affect Mental Health
By Shakil Mirza
Sep/Oct 2024
In 2020, the Winnipeg-based Islamic Social Services Association (ISSA) conducted a year of consultations, focus groups and interviews with mental health professionals, community leaders, imams and social workers nationwide. The following consensus was reached: It is critical to respond collectively and professionally to Canadian Muslims’ multifaceted mental health issues due to increasing Islamophobia and the intersectionality of race, religion, gender and the traumatized refugees fleeing war and persecution.
Given these realities, we have encountered profound challenges. The pervasive experiences of betrayal, discrimination and dehumanization have left deep scars, plunging many into a cycle of vicarious trauma, grief and fear. This burden weighs particularly heavily on vulnerable groups such as youth, newcomers and women, all of whom often feel unsafe in public spaces and workplaces.
Although this ongoing demonization has intensified feelings of frustration, stress and insecurity, these are often overlooked as social determinants of health. A March 2023 public opinion poll from the Vancouver-based Angus Reid Institute found that 39% of Canadians held “unfavorable” views about Islam and that 52% of Quebecers held those same negative views. Recent research has linked discrimination and hate with poor mental and physical health (“Islamophobia, Health, and Public Health,” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29672152/).
Consequently, Muslims experiencing discrimination are less likely to seek health and social services. This is worsened by the prevalence of Islamophobia in these settings, both for patients and care providers (“Scoping Review: Research on Islamophobia in Healthcare Settings).
There is an urgent need for mental health professionals to work together. Collaboration, advocacy and research can help address these issues.
However, amid these adversities, a resolve emerges to confront and overcome them. In November 2022, ISSA launched the Institute for Muslim Mental Health Canada (IMMH) at its inaugural conference in Winnipeg. This event brought together North American professionals, imams, researchers and organizations to share, discuss and highlight Muslim Canadians’ core mental and social and/or family health needs. A wave of proactive measures is driving attempts to address the mental health fallout stemming from prolonged exposure to discrimination and marginalization.
Efforts are underway to gauge the impact of these experiences through rigorous research and to develop tailored services that offer psychological and spiritual support. These services aim to cultivate emotional resilience, provide avenues for grief relief, as well as foster a sense of empowerment.
Moreover, initiatives are being launched to enhance cultural literacy, facilitate healing circles and equip individuals with the tools to engage effectively with media and policymakers. Public education campaigns and sector-specific workshops are being rolled out to dispel misconceptions about Islam and Muslims and foster understanding across communities.
Collaboration with Indigenous and other marginalized groups facing similar challenges is being actively pursued, recognizing the strength in solidarity and shared experiences.
The call to action reverberates loudly: Professionals, community leaders, imams and service providers must unite to pursue this noble endeavor. By collectively confronting oppression and fostering a culture of inclusivity and support, we are paving the way for a healthier, safer future for our youth and generations to come.
This conference marked a significant milestone in establishing and sustaining the IMMH which offers a crucial platform for Muslim healthcare experts to come together, foster collaboration and exchange knowledge. The goal is to collectively address community members’ mental health challenges. Through this national-based undertaking, concerted efforts are being coordinated and communities are being mobilized toward healing and resiliency. IMMH is envisioned as a means to unify social service organizations, community organizers, advocates and Muslim mental health professionals and practitioners.
To collaborate, contribute and coordinate to IMMH, three departments were identified at the inaugural conference as priorities.
Center of Excellence: Develop and enhance culturally and spiritually compatible programs and services that address and promote Muslim mental health supports and treatments • Develop and promote social and family services and resources for wrap-around trauma-informed care that will enhance resiliency and recovery • Promote and enhance counseling services that are professional and compatible with the client’s cultural and spiritual needs.
Knowledge Hub: Act as a clearing house for research and knowledge that will inform practice and program development • Initiate learnings from Indigenous Elders, such as adapting the model of restorative justice and healing circles with Winnipeg’s Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre • Offer support services and therapeutic counseling to victims of hate-based violence, domestic and gendered violence, discrimination and racism • Enhance capacity building of community resiliency drawing from spiritual and cultural strengths • Train volunteers in mental health first aid and grief support from across Canada • Develop peer support groups.
Anti-Islamophobia/Anti-Racism Education: Conduct and support research on Islamophobia’s impact on Muslims’ psychological, economic, social and mental health • Organize sector-specific training on building resistance to Islamophobia • Develop spiritual and psychological counseling models for specific populations to address internalized Islamophobia, self-isolation, self-othering and vicarious trauma • Bring together diverse perspectives from practitioners, imams, service providers, community leaders, researchers, trainees and people with lived or living experience. Doing so is pivotal to breaking silos and developing strategies to foster psychological and spiritual resistance, emotional resilience and grief relief • Forge alliances with Indigenous and other marginalized communities and recognize the importance of collective action and solidarity in combating hate.
Given that educators spend a lot of time with youth, schools can have a tremendous impact on Muslim youth and be instrumental in providing support. Schools can, and often do, create welcoming and inclusive environments for Muslim and other minority students through specially designated occasions like Black History Month, Islamic History Month Canada, Asian Heritage Month and the National Day for Action against Islamophobia. These commemorations legitimize the presence of religious and ethnic minority pupils and help educate, celebrate and encourage relationships among a diverse student body, which, in turn, helps foster a strong sense of unity among Muslim youth and their peers.
Shakil Mirza (MPH ’20, Queen’s University) is project manager for ISSA Institute for Muslim Mental Health.
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