Instead, they turn to imams and other community leaders, who often quietly refer them to mental health professionals. But leaders of the Raleigh mosque, which draws thousands of worshippers a week, realized that mental health issues needed to be dealt with in a more professional and organized way and that the requests were inundating its two religious leaders.

A year ago, a group of mental health experts who are also mosque members agreed to volunteer their time to provide the service. Members can now go online and pick from among six mental health experts — including a family therapist, chaplain and a substance abuse counselor — for a free and confidential session. This new referral initiative started here in September and is part of a growing menu of social services nationwide aimed at addressing the needs of American Muslims, which have never been stronger.

Muslims in the U.S. are racially and ethnically diverse, with nearly 60 percent born abroad. As a minority — making up 1.1 percent of the U.S. population — they have suffered assaults and intimidation in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidency. The travel ban and the rise of nationalist rhetoric, which views immigrants as “other,” have contributed to feelings of being bullied, harassed and otherwise treated with suspicion.

Yet, many Muslims are wary of talking with outsiders about domestic violence or behavioral issues, for fear that may cast a bad light on the faith generally, said Kameelah Mu’Min Rashad, founder and president of the Muslim Wellness Foundation in Philadelphia. Providing mental health services through the mosque may provide cover as well as permission to access care, said Heather Laird, a psychologist who directs the Center for Muslim Mental Health and Islamic Psychology at the University of Southern California.

Continue reading at: Religion News Service (RNS)

On the first Massachusetts Open Mosque Day, hundreds of non-Muslims attended the center and 17 other area mosques to observe religious practices and ask questions about the faith and its perception. “We need to engage in genuine community, camaraderie, fraternity, sorority: people coming together, learning about their cultures, their backgrounds, what people are struggling with,” said Sheikh Yasir Fahmy, the senior imam at the cultural center, in an interview.

At the center, Muslims and non-Muslims sat together to drink chai and eat sambusas, children played games and tasted ice cream, women and girls tried on headscarves, and people took home free paperback copies of the Koran. Mohammed Lali, a Jamaica Plain resident who immigrated to the United States from Tanzania in 1998, said he was moved by the large turnout.

“I didn’t expect we would have this [many] people,” said Lali, 40, who teaches the Koran to children at the cultural center and was there with his 9-year-old daughter, Muthana. “There’s a lot of trash talk about us,” he said. “But today maybe they come over, they look at us, how we do it, how we worship. It’s totally different from what they hear from the news, maybe, sometimes. We don’t promote violence.”

While mosques are always open to the public, Sunday’s event was a declaration that “they are part of the fabric of the Commonwealth and an inclusive part of this community,” said John Robbins, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Massachusetts, in a telephone interview.

Last year, the FBI reported a dramatic increase in the number of anti-Muslim crimes in the United States, and President Trump’s efforts to ban travelers from several predominantly Muslim countries have stoked controversy about Islam.

“The Massachusetts Muslim community opens its doors today and every day to combat the pervasive fear that so many Americans feel about their faith,” said Robbins.

Source: The Boston Globe