[speaking in native tongue] all praise due for all on allah appeared we are at the last leg of the racier today we today we are talking about Mental Health challenges for muslims and conflicts of identity. As you know, Mental Health issues are something that is a human issue, not a big specific to my funds or any other faith or population of people. Without further ado, i want to get started because we have a lot of speakers we had to get through it time is limited. I would like to actually first introduced brother bilal ali, the maryland delegate. [applause] [speaking in native tongue] in the name of the law, most merciful and compassionate being the only state legislator from baltimore city, i know how it feels to be alone and ostracized. The point i want to make is this. First of all, i want to thank the tam group. This is so necessary in the process of educating the public in general about what islam is all about. I think there has been a total miseducation about the faith of islam and i think we operate out of so many spirited vehicle ideas that this interferes with you getting bored being able to connect with the person. The common denominator is we all have shared value. Language is so important because when you prescribe a certain ajit is to an entire religion to behavior of individuals who may or may not embrace the entire faith. They take away today is we have a mass that we hope there is a message that you take away from here today and better understand in that people do not represent islam. If an individual does something windowless contrary to the goal principle of islam, we dont generalize or paint the entire religion with one brush. We dont do that with any other religion. It seems like islam has become the target that when someone does something and theyre supposed to profess a belief, then the whole religion gets a bad rap. We need to educate our herself more to differentiate between that particular persons behavior no matter what they may be opposed to demonizing an entire religion. I am here to support these brothers. Theres a lot of things have been able to do within my own community. Ive been very dividend the antiviolence movement, whether its working with gangs, brother of kiel made an important statement. Either use it in one of those boxes or you dont. It is no integrated model that comes out of criminal justice that we are currently using, but we should have a more integrated model because theres different individuals in different circumstances we need to evaluate individuals in order to appropriately assess those individuals. Given the Political Climate that we are in now as we all know, we have a lot of work to do and i think the brother had sent it earlier that we should be ambassadors. 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 where people think that they are the truth and a half truth disguised as a truth does more damage than the actual truth itself. The worst thing you can do to the truth or stretch it. I just wanted to give a few words because i know we are strapped for time and i want to make sure this important dialogue continues. [applause] thank you, brother bilal. Now we are going to handed over to ibrahim aziz, our honored guests. Often when we discuss terrorism, extremism, radicalization, its a very impersonal manner. We use terms such as terrorist fighters, as tears are terrorist organizations or homegrown violent extremists. However, there is no one reason or one cause why someone becomes lost to extremism. There is no onesizefitsall. To contact, to be accepted coming to be part of a unified body is the way that we define ourselves. What im asking us all here to consider is that in some cases, these acronyms discussing this topic in the overgeneralization can be dehumanizing and can in turn lead to a blanket mis categorization and labeling of an entire group of muslims. My name is ibrahim aziz. My brother was charged december 2015 with providing support to isis. I can still remember the roll call for 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 explained to me, hoping shes overreacting to send a very minor. Yeah yeah, i can understand youve cleared please calm down. After three minutes of trying to get her to calm down, im able to make a wish to see. They took julio. Who took julio . The fbi. My little brother . There must be some kind of mistake. The house i grew up in had its fair problems. It was riddled with undiagnosed mental problems. They would say its very dangerous out there. Dont trust your friends. Its probably better to not have any friends at all. For the majority of my early childhood, however, my sister and i went to public school. We were exposed to other individuals from the grandmother and some polls. Amongst the larger muslim communities. They have difficulty adjusting and i was unprepared. It wasnt about income but i didnt know who i was. There is the older muslim social worker in our community and he was the first to suggest to receive professional help. It took about two years that i like to i was, that i felt good about who i was. My older brother didnt attend public school. My little brother was not allowed to communicate or be with my sister and i. He was allowed to interact with advanced enough goals. My little brother had no friend and he was intentionally ostracized and sequestered from everyone. I felt isolated i felt alone growing a beard i can tell you that i was searching for acceptance and i know he was searching for accepted. On rare occasions when i was allowed to interact, pitas conversationally behind, inappropriately shocked im his brother, withdrawn. You could equate to talking to a 10yearold. He was socially behind. The First Court Hearing aunts and uncles, parents and were photographed by the local newspaper after leaving the courthouse. The news article is who are they . We should kill them all. The 85yearold woman in a wheelchair and this is an example of a dehumanizing effect isolated by a family and looks for except in and searching for acceptance was targeted. Jaleel of these jaleel aziz is not an anomaly. All you have to do is fill in the blank. Mental Health Challenges to be loved and accepted to be a catalyst and precursor. It breaks my heart that my little brother has gone from one case to now another. They are left out of our terrorism conversations then we have looked for solutions, there can be no onesizefitsall my little brother needed help [applause] thank you for your personal story. We appreciate you sharing that is part of breaking down the stigma of Mental Health. Without further ado, just because of our time constraint, training a moment after hearing that story. I know its been a long day starting at 10 00 a. M. Joining us in person, joining us online in what we feel is a really relevant, pertinent and essential conversation how to effectively extremism. And effects fill it everyone here. And the religious freedom specifics on her and the religious, civic and legal discourse as it relates to the first amendment. I myself in the executive director of the organization i am a Second Generation, son of somali immigrants, someone who is considered a Community Leader in the Somali Community. What i would like to talk about in these brief moments is radicalization in the community. Radicalization and with tears. They do contribute to this radicalization. As you heard time and time again, not just one thing, they are different issues and factors that do contribute to radicalization. We just heard this story of ibrahim aziz and his brother, the social awkwardness, and the inability to family members. Before i begin, a brief background about the symbolic community. There are hundreds of thousands of somali americans living in the u. S. And they are concentrated in certain pockets with the twin cities, minneapolis and st. Paul one of them, columbus ohio. Just to name a few in the past 15 years or so its been well over 100,000 immigrants, refugees who have been admitted into the u. S. The somali American Population in the u. S. 10 or 15 years or less. And theyve been around for 40 plus years. It goes without saying they are going to be different. When you think about this tamale community, somali youth if you watched the news, you hear all shabbat and al qaeda affiliate between 2007 and 2012 and send young somali americans, including two or more young girls overseas through legal or illegal means to go fight, enjoy these terrorist networks. You also may hear acts of terror here at home in the u. S. You mightve heard about the recent 2016 shooting at the ohio state university, which we are nearly a dozen people were injured. They are minneapolis for the assailants stabbed a limited dozen people were shot and killed. The young man in portland, oregon who had the intention of detonating a bomb at a holiday Tree Lighting ceremony. Before he was and thankfully nobody was injured. In this particular situation, his family spoke to the fbi about some intuition or some worry they had was being radicalized. Its been reiterated especially the first panel between the government or the organizations of the community they serve. With now, you may have a situation like this young man whose family now may feel that their son was after they informed Law Enforcement that their son was not illegally entrapped. So, there are many fact is that contribute to radicalization in this tamale community, particularly somali youth. Many are socially economic, have nothing to do with religion. Studies will show you that there is no relation between religiosity and uptake and extremism. Other external factors contribute to this. Could be poverty, lack of housing, poor education, crime, drugs, gangs. There were at the same time, 11 young somalis were killed in Gang Violence and this goes back to dr. Basirs approach where you see this correlation between Gang Violence and extremism. And if you speak with Community Members cannot radicalization to them is just one of the issues that is concerning to them. Another isolation is another issue, whether it be self isolation or community isolation, which may enable a platform where radicalization. Mental health, so ill stick to that. It has been stigmatized for a very long time. Somalia is a muslim majority country of over 99 muslim and for a very long time, if you were to bring up the issue of Mental Health, a person being depressed by person even being stressed out, you would be told you are possessed. You are possessed by demons. You need to pray in the mosque. Theres Something Else wrong with you. Theres nothing wrong with your Mental Health. That is not an issue. There is no such thing as stress. So for a very long time due to lack of education and negative about Mental Health. It is something important or pertinent and we treat it, take care of it, maintain it and take proper steps to ensure that part of ourselves remains healthy. So thankfully and the education barrier, language barrier the Somali Community has been more good in discussing these issues. In june, this past june there is a conference at the university of Minnesota School of social work in conjunction with the Mental Health network. To start to discuss some of these problems, what are some of the things that the first generation, Second Generation and now the thirdgeneration are facing. Somalis, especially those who immigrated in the past years were fleeing their civil war. Going from refugee camp to refugee camp, waiting for the day that you get the phone call or the letter from mr. Application has been accepted and you and your family annually with a heavy heart knowing the life that she built, the home that she wrote, the degree that you obtain scummy 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 the somali communities. But again, it was something that was not addressed. I believe it is the journal of the American Medical Association that says ptsd and refugees can range anywhere from 4 to 86 . 5 to 31 . So this is a real issue, a true issue. My generation and the 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. You dont talk about anything. Because of that there is an intergenerational transfer of trauma. And now you as a Second Generation or a thirdgeneration smalley american may start to take on the trauma of your parent because they never got any closer on those issues. Theyve never been talked about it. Not even with their children. So, thankfully it was her and the Somali Community are going in a better direction. Some of these numbers are trying to highlight that this is a real issue. Not just an issue thats going to go away anytime soon because you have that transfer from generation to generation. Many young people radicalized her Second Generation they have never seen somalia a day in their life, they have never even spoke to someone. But some of these here may contribute to them becoming vulnerable and not having anyone to talk about on these issues of isolation coupled with these Mental Health issues makes it really vulnerable for those who choose to exploit them. There are several organization, some that have, you know, been established in the past 10 or 15 years to try and discuss these issues or even deter somali youth from being radicalized. That is where i spent a lot of my time and a lot of my focus as a youth director in organizations with the somalis made up of less than 5 of the community. So these issues are not specific just to the Somali Community. And i was a youth director and a community and there was a young person who has been charged with providing materials and he lived in the same city at the organization where is the use direct her, but he never came to the mosque. Because i was in that city, id never seen him a day in my life and i just heard about the news. So again, i try to reiterate the point that the radicalization does not actually happen in the mosque. I heard about this young person on the news and almost none of the youth knew who he was. Those who had met him at summer camp in things like that in the past said he was very isolated, didnt used to come out much in things of the sort. So, i would like to conclude by saying that i think it is important that we do take and holistic approach to deradicalization, that the professionals be it in islamic theology or mental help or corrections are put in position to deradicalized. These people have to really be people that are trusted by the community. 10 is a grassroots effort and you cant have a grassroots effort without having the Community Involved in the Community Engaged in having community trust. The experts like dr. Baker and dr. White and all the other experts that youve seen today on the panel are empowered in a position to help eradicate in deradicalized not only in the Somali Community, but in the Muslim Community as a whole. Thank you. [applause] thank you for that very informative talk. Please write them on the cards. Next we have dr. Baker who is the trooper here. He has been here since the beginning. Keep it rolling. Again, what im going to do is refer to your framework. It is necessary to show the comment being in threat and interconnectivity with the framework in which we need to work. Weve got a very personal story with a case similar to that in the u. K. , where he graduated with my phd. I wont go into detail, but it mirrors what ibrahim aziz said. We have spoken looking outwardly to government agencies, social agencies. Theres a sense of denial where the muslim communities as to our families and when its too late, we didnt realize we didnt do this, didnt do that. What is that parental engagement . Where is that parental responsibility . Where is it that weve given a space for children and those in the community to articulate their thoughts, even if wrong. What we are fine and when i gravitate, i became part of the game. Protecting is similar, but they look for foot soldiers. They look for those we heard about academic literacy. There is also Emotional Intelligence and go find a number of these individuals are susceptible to violent extremism, emotionally illiterate. We did have a demo which we are going to show you that we did and it wasnt done or no ones beheaded or things like that to show their propaganda. A young woman i showed that two trading in the u. K. , i showed a minute of it and i asked them come youve got five minutes to talk amongst yourselves. How would you address this propaganda with some vulnerable youths. One of you put your hand up inside convinced by the narrative. I was actually convinced. I dont know, how would you do it . Every videos that we actually look at. The point is, we are doing that on a more rudimentary stage we should be engaging with the youth regularly within the mosque. They shouldnt just become places of worship if we are going to really engage, we should be having surgeries in there, social work, engaging with the youth, and ill go back to what i developed in my phd for the youthful founding youthful stage. I want to give you more details on the model. To help them nurture, a 16yearold son of us wont do that. Some of us wont even look at those videos. It will cause by just watching. A child doesnt know that. Why do that parental guidance on movies so they are at this excited of exploration. Now theyve got information they are trying to place it in a context other than abstract from a different land than they are trying to weaken islam and the way in the societies become from. So difficult. They a