Caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] at thats a movement, scholars discussed ways to innter violent extremism muslim communities. This is one hour and 20 minutes. All praises due for allah, and peace and blessings. The last leg of the race here, and today will will talk about Mental Health challenges for muslims and conflicts of identity. And as you know, until Health Issues are something that is a human issue. It is not something that is single to muslims or any other faith or population of people. Without further i do, i just want to get started, because we have a lot of speakers we have to get through, and the time is limited. I would like to actually first introduced brother ali, if you would not mind coming up. The state maryland delegate. [applause] in the name of the lord, most merciful and compassionate, being the only state legislator from baltimore city, i know how it feels to be alone and ostracized. But the point i want to make is this first of all, i want to thank the tay because this is so necessary about educating the public in general about what true islam is all about. I think it has been a total miseducation about the faith of islam, and i think we operate out of so many stereotypical ideas that this interferes with you getting or being able to connect with the person. I think the common denominator is we are all human, we all have shared values. I think language is so important because when you prescribe a certain adjective to an entire religion as opposed to did compartmentalizing the compartmentalizing behavior of angels who may or may not of individuals who may or may not embrace an entire faith. The take away today is we had a mess that we hope there is a message you take away from here today, and better understanding that people do not represent islam. And what i mean by if an individual does something that we know is contrary to the fundamental principles of islam, we do not generalize or paint the entire religion with one brush, because we do not do that with any other religion. It seems like it seems like islam has become that target that when someone does something and may propose to profess a belief in islam, then the whole religion gets a bad rap. We need to educate ourselves more to differentiate between that perk it particular persons behavior and accepting personal responsibility for those acts, no matter what they be as opposed to demonizing an entire religion. Im here to support these brothers. There is a lot of things that i have been able to do with in own community. I have been very effective in antiviolence movement, whether working with gangs. I think, rubber ah brother akhil made a good point about the criminal justice models we use. Currently we use three models. Deterrence, incapacitate, and deterrence. It of you fit in one of those boxes or you do not. There is no integrated model that comes out of criminal justice that we are currently using, but we should have a more integrated model because there is different individuals in different circumstances that we need to evaluate, individuals in order to pro appropriately assess those individuals. Given the Political Climate we are in now, as we all know, we have a lot of work to do as individuals, and i think the brother has said it earlier, that we should be ambassadors to go out, because many of us have muslim neighbors, and we need to debunk a lot of the stereotypes out there because at some point they take on a life of their own, or people think they are the truth, and a half truth is disguised as the truth does more damage than the actual truth itself. Facing the worst thing you can do to the truth is stretch it. I just wanted to give a few words, because i know we are strapped for time, and i want to make sure that this important dialogue continues. Thank you. [applause] mr. Mavins thank you, brother bilal. Now we are going to hand it over to ibrahim aziz. Mr. Aziz when we discussed radicalization, it is done in an impersonal matter. We use terms for terrorist fighters come organizations, or homegrown violent extremists. However, there is no one reason or one cause why somebody in becomes someone becomes lost to extremism. There is a desire to connect, to be accepted, deep part of a unified body in something that is a way we define ourselves. What im asking us all here to consider is that in some cases, these acronyms, our lack of nuance when discussing this topic, and the overgeneralization can be dehumanizing and can lead to a bat blanket this categorization in labeling an entire group of muslims. My name is ibrahim aziz. My brother is charged was charged in december 2015 with providing Material Support isis. I can remember the frantic ca lls from my grandmother. During the call, she could hardly speak. I could hardly make out her words. Im trying to get her to calm down and explain to me, hoping she is overreacting to something minor. I cannot understand you. Yaya, these calm down. What are you trying to say to me . After turning trying to get her to calm down, i can make out what she was saying. They took him. I think the fbi. My little brother . There must be some kind of mistake. The house we grew up had its share of problems. It was riddled with undiagnosed Mental Health problems. My peers have unique view of the world. They would say it is very dangerous out there. Do not trust people. Do not trust her friends. It is probably better not to have friends at all. For the majority of my early childhood, we could either visit friends or have friends over at our house. My sister and i had each other. We went to Public Schools. We were exposed to other individuals and children. We had my grandmother, aunts, uncles, and as i got older i found comfort among the larger Muslim Community,after i moved out on my own, i had encountered tremendous difficulty adjusting to life. The real word was nothing described us, nothing for which i was unprepared. I could advise myself. It was not about income. I did not know who i was, and i lacked a positive selfimage. There was an older mode muslim social worker who suggested i receive professional help. It took about two years before i could really say that i like to otherwise, that i felt good about who i was, who i am. My little brother did not attend Public School as i did. My little brother was not allowed to commit kate or be with my sister and i. He was not allowed to interact with his answer articles. My little brother had no friends, and he was intentionally ostracized and sequestered from everyone. And while i cannot discuss the details of the case, i can tell you he was isolated. How do i know . Because i was isolated. I continued he felt alone. How do you know . Because i felt alone growing up. His case was more severe than mine, and i was searching for acceptance, and so i know he was searching for except. On rare occasions, when i was allowed to interact with him and meet with him, he was conversationally behind, inappropriately shy, a brother, withdrawn. He was at 17, you could equate to talking to a 10yearold. He was socially behind. When my family went to see him during my court hearing, my grandmother, aunts, uncles, parents, and we were photographed by the local newspaper after leaving the courthouse, in the comments on the photo of that news article was, who are they . Were they muslim, too . We should kill them all. In the picture was an 85yearold woman in a wheelchair. My brother was isolated by the family, and in that isolation he looked for acceptance, and in searching for acceptance, he was targeted. Jalil, my little brother is not an anomaly. There are many people looking for acceptance. Now we have a group or groups that say we will accept you with all your imperfections. All you have to do is fill in the blanks. Mental health challenges, isolation, yearning to be loved and accepted can be a catalyst and precursor to violent ideology. It breaks my heart that my mother has gone from living in 1 it breaks my heart that my brother has gone from living in a cage to living in another. As we look for solutions, there can be no onesizefitsall, and my little brother needs help, he needs his help, and not the kind of help that a six by eight cell provides. Thank you. [applause] mr. Mavins thank you, ukraine, for sharing such a personal story, and we really do appreciate use sharing that. Part of breaking down the stigma of Mental Health. So without further and do, because of our time, we will start with brother Mohammed Hussein. Mr. Hussein i think i need a moment after hearing that. Quite it was emotional. I would like to on behalf of the tam for taking time out of your day to join us. It started at 10 00 a. M. Joining us online, and what we feel is a really relevant, pertinent, and essential conversation, and that is how to effectively challenge extremism. It is something which is near and dear to my heart and something that really impacts the lives of each and every one of us here. I would like to thank the newseum for a 40 us this venue in a Freedom Center specifically for affording me to be a student and study and dig deeper into the intersection of religious, civic, and legal this course as a relates to the first amendment. I myself am the executive director of an Organization Called safe. The somaliamerican youth foundation. I am Second Generation somaliamerican, the son of somali immigrants, someone who is considered a leader especially in the Somali Community. What i would like to talk about in these brief moments is radicalization in the Somali Community, radicalization with somali youth. And some of the many factors that do contribute to this radicalization. As you heard, time and time again, not just one thing, there are many different issues and factors that contribute to radicalization. We just heard the story of abraham and his brother, the isolation, the social app court notice awkwardness, the inability to converse even with family members. Before i begin, i would like to give a brief background about the Somali Community, the somaliamerican community. There are, as many of you know, there are hundreds of somali have been americans living in the u. S. , and they are concentrated in certain pockets. The twin cities, minneapolis and st. Paul, those are one of them. Columbus, ohio, seattle, washington, to name a few. In the past 15 years or so, there has been well over 100,000 immigrants, refugees, who have been admitted to the u. S. The somaliamerican population in the u. S. Is different in this sense. Theres some immigrant populations which are relatively new who have been in the states were 10 or 15 years or less, and some somali communities like the community here in the d. C. Metro area, the community in san diego, and others, you have been around for 40plus years. It goes without saying that radicalization, even in the somaliamerican communities and the factors that do contribute to radicalization are going to be different. When you think about the Somali Community, when you think about somali youth, you think, did you watch the news, you hear alshabaab out al qaeda affiliates, between 2007 and 2012, over 40 somali, young somaliamericans, including two or more young girls went overseas with legal means to fight to join these terrorist networks. You also may acts of terror here at home in the u. S. Might have heard about the recent 2016 shooting at the ohio state university, which were nearly a dozen people were shot and injured. Heard about the stabbing in st. Cloud, minneapolis, where the assailant stabbed people before he was shot and killed. Heard about the young man in portland, oregon had the intention of detonating a bomb at a holiday Tree Lighting ceremony before he was caught and thankfully no one was injured. In this particular situation, his family actually spoke to the fbi about some intuition or some worry that they had that their young son was being radicalized. So this kind of goes back to the issue thats been reiterated, especially in the first panel, about that there has to be a level of trust between the governments or the organizations and the communities that they serve. Without that, you may have a situation like this young man, whose family may feel that their son was, after they informed law enforcement, that their son was illegally entrapped. There are many factors that contribute to radicalization in the community Somali Community, particularly somali youth. Many of these factors are social economic have nothing to do with religion. Most studies will show you that there is no relation between religiosity and uptick in extremism. There are other external factors which contribute to this. They could be poverty, lack of housing, for education, crime, drugs, gangs, theres one interesting study in 2007, 2009, there were around 20 somali youth who went overseas to join. At the same time, in the twin cities, 11 young somalis were killed in Gang Violence. I think this goes back to dr. Bakers street approach where you see this correlation between Gang Violence and extremism. If you speak with community members, radicalization to them is just one of the many issues that is concerning to them. Isolation is another issue. Isolation is another issue which whether it is self isolation or community isolation, which may enable a platform where radicalization can fly. But the focus here is Mental Health, so i will stick to that. Mental health in the Somali Community has been stigmatized for a very long time. Somalia is a muslim majority country. Over 99 of somalis are muslim. For a very long time, if you were to bring up this issue of Mental Health, a person being depressed, or a person even being stressed out, you would be told that you are possessed. You are possessed by demons. You need to go and recite more koran. You need to pray in the mosque. There is nothing wrong with your Mental Health. Thats not an issue. Its not surprising that young kids would go to their parents and say, im feeling stressed out. They would say, there is no such thing as stress. So for a very long time, due to lack of education, even lack of correct islamic education, again because islam does not say anything negative about Mental Health. It is something that is important, and we treated just like we treat physical health. We take care of it, we maintain it, we take the proper steps to ensure that that part of ourselves remains healthy. So thankfully, over time, as the education barrier, the language barrier, the cultural a barrier has eroded over time, the Somali Community has been more proactive in discussing these issues. Just as recent as this past june , there was a conference at the university of Minnesota School of social work in conjunction with the somali Mental Health network. To discuss some of these problems. And what are some of the things that first generation, Second Generation even thirdgeneration somali americans are facing . Many somalis, especially those who immigrated in the past 20 years, were fleeing from civil war. Going from refugee camp to refugee camp, waiting for the day you get that phone call or letter that your application has been accepted and you and your family are not safe. And you leave with a heavy heart, knowing you left the life that you built, the homes you won, the degrees you obtained, you left all that behind in pursuit of a safer life and a Better Future for your children. So, ptsd is something that is common. In these somali communities. But again, it was something that was not addressed. I believe its the journal of the American Medical Association that says, ptsd and refugees can range anywhere from 4 to 86 . So, this is a real issue. It is a true issue. My generation, secondgeneration, somali americans, may not have faced this. But they grow up in a household where these issues are not addressed, where you dont talk about depression, you dont talk about stress, you dont talk about ptsd, any of these things. And because of that, there is an intergenerational transfer of trauma. Now you as a second or Third Generation somali american may start to take on the trauma of your parents, because they never got any closure on those issues. They never got treated great they never even talked about it, not even with their children. Treated. They never even talked about it, not even with their children. Some of these numbers highlight that this is a real issue, and not just an issue that is going to go away anytime soon. Because again, you have the transfer from generation to generation. Many young people have been radicalized that are secondgeneration. May have never seen somalia a day in their life, may not even speak somali. But some of these factors here, they contribute to them becoming vulnerable, and not having anybody to talk to about these issues, isolation, coupled with these Mental Health issues, makes it really vulnerable for those who choose to exploit them. There are several organizations, some that have, you know, been established in the past 10 to 15 years to try and discuss some of these issues or even deter somal i youth from being radicalized. I say somali youth because thats where i spent a lot of my time, a lot of my focus, but i have Service Youth director in organizations where somalis made up less than 5 in the community. These issues are not specific just to the Somali Community. Ive seen issues, very similar to the issue that ibrahim spoke of him with his brother. I was a youth director in a community, and there was a young person who was being charged with providing Material Support to isis. And, he lived in the same city at the organization as a youth director but he would never come to the mosque. I ha