Article 1: What does mental health look like in the British Muslim community?
Numbering at an estimated 4.13 million, Muslims make up around 6.3% of the UK’s population (source: Statista). In a community as large and vastly diverse as this, what patterns are there when it comes to mental health?
According to a report published by Better Community Business Network in June 2021, which surveyed 729 respondents aged 18 to 30, the most common mental health struggles faced by young Muslims were anxiety, depression and stress.
Mental illness also disproportionately affects people who identify as Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME). 90% of Muslims living in the UK come from ethnic minority backgrounds (Source: Muslim Census). Hence, could Muslims, as a group, be more vulnerable to mental health conditions? If so, what does mental health look like in the British Muslim community?
Mental health advocate and junior doctor Nomaan Zubair, 28, describes his observations of mental health in the Pakistani Muslim community in Greater Manchester. Having trained at the University of Manchester, he hopes to work within children and adolescent mental health services and in the future, start his own podcast, addressing sexual abuse in the BAME community.
He says: “When I think of Muslims and mental health, I see good points and bad points. I think there is a lot in terms of having a religion- not necessarily just Islam- but having a higher purpose and having a spiritual aspect of your life really does help with mental health.
“However, I do think there’s bad points because a lot of peoples’ mental health can be related to their religion, unfortunately. I think Muslims and mental health is a very interesting topic. It’s not been delved into a lot.”
There is a lack of awareness of mental health in many Muslim communities because it is not acknowledged enough in mosques, Nomaan suggests. He would like to see mosques taking more ownership in actively supporting Muslims with mental health.
He continues: “I went to masjid (mosque)10 to 15 years ago and there was never really a focus on mental health. Even now, you get the occasional khutba (sermon) during Jummah (Friday prayers) in the occasional masjid, where they touch on it very slightly.
“There needs to be more education about mental health. We’re not really there yet as a community, considering Muslims are a huge community and [mental health problems] are a huge thing within our communities. We’ve accepted we [Muslims] are massive; we’ve accepted the problem is massive. Why has no-one tried to fix it?”
Additionally, Nomaan feels that there is a lack of language surrounding mental health in South Asian cultures, which exacerbates the problem of Muslims not being open enough about mental health.
He continues: “[In Urdu or Mirpuri], do we even have a word for ‘depression’? Even with the word ‘anxiety’, the closest translation I can think of in Urdu or Mirpuri is ‘uncomfortableness’. It’s still not ‘anxiety’. So I think a) we need to start accepting that [mental illness] is there and it’s always been there and b) we need to start figuring out how to talk about it. The language is so important to talk about [mental health] and c) we need to be more open about accessing services.
“I think we also need to accept there’s things within our religion that help with mental health. We’re all taught to how to pray. We’re all taught the five pillars of Islam, so why aren’t we teaching each other about mental health?”
Public Health Specialty Registrar and mental health academic Karim Mitha is working on his PhD on Islamophobia and Muslim mental health at the University of Glasgow. His interest lies in addressing and understanding the development of mental health inequalities.
He says: “Muslim mental health is getting a lot of traction and I think rightfully so. About half of British Muslims live in the 10 most deprived areas of Britain. People from South Asian backgrounds have higher rates of diabetes. There are also factors like higher rates of unemployment and generational poverty, which factor into health outcomes in general.
“We [Muslims] are one of the groups that experiences greater rates of religiously and racially motivated hate crimes. Any time there are worldwide events, the attention comes to Muslim communities. Those all factor into Muslims’ everyday experiences and their mental wellbeing.
“All these factor into how Muslims are perceived in wider society. If you look at how that translates when it comes to the NHS and health, we don’t actually have a lot of data pertaining to Muslims and mental health.”
Explaining this data gap, Karim continues: “Generally, the lack of data about Muslims is a historical anomaly. It’s just the way data is collected, which is by ethnicity.
“So, generally, people from Pakistani backgrounds tend to experience severe illness before seeing a healthcare provider, so severe mental illness is showing up quite late in the system. They’re not getting to a point where we can intervene early. Women from Pakistani backgrounds have twice the rate of depression and anxiety than people of white British backgrounds and they also recover less. That says something about mental health and inequality.”
Moreover, Karim describes a sociological theory where being from a minority background can precipitate ill mental health.
He adds: “The experience of being marginalised, of being disenfranchised, experiencing racism and Islamophobia, being systematically gas-lit, even having financial stress. The constant stress of being a minority adds to the level of everyday stressful experiences.
“From my work in Scotland in uncovering experiences of Muslims, I’ve had respondents say they’ve had rocks thrown at them, they’re seen as a threat, or they’ve had the ‘P word’ said to them. This impacts your mental health, not because you’re Muslim, but because you’re experiencing the wider societal framework of how ‘Muslim’ is viewed. That’s a very tricky nuance.”
This article is part of a 5-part article series titled ‘What’s The Matter With Muslims?’
Read the ‘Hidden Survivors’ report by Better Community Business Network here.
Follow Karim Mitha on Twitter here.
