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WORLD ISLAMIC
ASSOCIATION FOR MENTAL HEALTH
Vol. II, No. I, Thirteenth Issue,
January 2002
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q CONTENTS / SOMMAIRE |
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MESSAGE FROM THE
SECRETARY GENERAL / DR Mohammed Farouk El Sendiony
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PSYCHIATRISTS
AND PSYCHOLOGISTS DEBATE THE PHENOMENON OF: SUICIDE BOMBING
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SUICIDE
BOMBING:A PSYCHO SOCIAL PHENOMENON
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A RESPONSE FROM
DR. WALID SARHAN: CONSULTANT PSYCHIATRIST
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A RESPONSE TO
DR. SARHAN'S LETTER
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WHO IS THE
TERROSIST?
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ZIONISTS AND
TERRORISM – IT IS OFFICIAL
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q SUMMARY / RESUMES |
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MESSAGE FROM
THE SECRETARY GENERAL / DR Mohammed Farouk El Sendiony
This is it: the end of 2001. It was a bad year for
mental health. This was the year when
"Panic was rampant
everywhere".
The New Year 2002 offers a new clean page for us to
write on, a new challenge, a new chance! This year we will get it right.
Meanwhile, "Be Merry all, Be Merry all" as we ring out the old and
ring in the New Year.
May we find the courage to dream great dreams.
Dreams do come true. Happy New Year.
q
PSYCHIATRISTS
AND PSYCHOLOGISTS DEBATE THE PHENOMENON OF: SUICIDE BOMBING
The phenomenon of suicide bombing is a significant
topic in the field of mental health. We have devoted this issue for debating
the phenomenon.
The term "suicide bomber" is a label which
already defines and shapes the discussion. Perhaps we should try to think of
a more neutral term. We believe suicide is NOT the primary focus of the
action but is rather a consequence. The action is to do damage against the
enemy.
Because of the prevalence of suicide bombing around
the global village, there is need for a scientific investigation of the
phenomenon. What is it?
We need to probe this issue further towards
developing new theoretical models to define this phenomenon. Let us see if
there is additional material in these manifest behaviors which has not been
explained or fully accounted for by other diagnostic criteria.
Are there other models through which to view these
actions? For example if we use a "War Model" how would this
behavior be categorized? "Good versus Bad, Right versus Wrong, Positive
versus Negative, Healthy versus Pathological. Looking at the Algerian model there are many actions by soldiers as well as by freedom fighters that would elicit opposite positions on these values. The French would consider it murderous; the Algerian would consider it militarily valid. Fanon would not be quick to criticize the resistance to an occupation for its tactics. The big issue is the occupation, not the means of resistance.
q
SUICIDE
BOMBING:A PSYCHO SOCIAL PHENOMENON
I know it is often argued that suicide bombings are
either the result of frustration and desperation, or that they emerge from
the pathology of religious extremism.
Some argue that suicide bombing is deeply rooted in
the Islamic faith. Nothing can be further from the truth. The opposite is
true. Suicide is negatively sanctioned by Islam. Recently the Grand
Mufti of Saudi Arabia issued a Fatwa in which he pinpointed that
suicide is a deviation from the Islamic Path. According to the Fatwa the
suicide bomber is damned to Hell. Trans-cultural psychiatric studies of
suicide have demonstrated that Muslim countries have the lowest rates of
suicide for as long as comparisons have been made (Okasha, et al).
Contrary to the propagandizing of both some Muslim
apologists for these acts of suicide bombings and anti-Muslim demagogues,
such behavior can't be fairly ascribed to the Islamic Belief.
Suicide is an act of total alienation and despair.
In the case of suicide bombing, it is encouraged and even induced by the
propagandizing of a cult-like belief in supernatural compensation. Since the
individual who perpetrates such an act feels no real material options are
available on earth, he opts to accept what he has been convinced will be
rewards after life. There are historical examples of Christians, Jews,
Buddhists and Native Americans who have engaged in such behavior with similar
rationales being offered for their acts.
But these are cult-like aberrations – not mainstream
phenomena – since a fundamental function of all religions is to define a
purpose in life and to make survival tolerable and meaningful even in the
direst circumstances. Religion is not an invitation or an inducement to
suicide or murder: those are negations of religion and the antithesis of its
purpose.
The real culprit is frustration and desperation
which permeate for example the totality of life of the Palestinians. A
generation of Palestinians has grown to adulthood with little opportunity to
live normal lives and with no hope that those circumstances can change. Daily
life is hellish marked by violence, repression and humiliation, plus racism
and despair.
To be demeaned or verbally or physically abused by
soldiers or settlers, to lose a child or parent to settler attacks or just to
be held arbitrarily for long periods of time in the hot sun at a checkpoint –
to have no significant control over any area of one's life, in other words,
to be powerless and denied all basic freedoms - can produce hopelessness and
the rage that fuels feelings of violence that seek vengeance.
Certainly, Palestinians have been recipients of a
consistent dose of such traumatizing and embittering experiences for decades.
In the process, military occupation is taken as an
acceptable given and is scarcely mentioned; Palestinian terrorism becomes the
cause not the effect, of violence, even though one side possesses a modern
military arsenal, while the other is stateless, virtually defenseless,
savagely persecuted at will, herded inside 160 little cantons, schools
closed, life made impossible.
Worst of all, the daily killing and wounding of
Palestinians is accompanied by the growth of Israeli settlements and the
400,000 settlers who dot the Palestinian landscape without respite.
For the Palestinians of all walks of life, Muslims
and Christians alike - death seems so random and so close. There probably are
times when they feel they want to die. In the words of a teenaged
Palestinian, "Why live, why study, why dream or plan when they are going
to kill us anyway". In the words of another, "A nightmare. It's a
bit like being in an American movie that never ends. You know, it's like one
of those horror or police movies, where people are killed in the streets. It
feels unreal. But it is real".
Palestinians who were children during the first
Intifada:
are university students in this one. They never had a childhood, never
enjoyed their teenage years. They've lived their whole lives in terror.
There are widows and orphans and homeless people
everywhere.
If the reader of these lines has been exposed to
what the Palestinians have or are continuing to experience, he would not have
been far away from breaking. We know from some psychological
"Experiments" that even the most emotionally healthy people
(individuals) will break psychologically under enough pressure. The end
result of this systematic traumatization might be depression. Suicide bombing
is a kind of depression. It is reactive depression. It is a normal reaction
to an abnormal situation and as extreme reaction to hopelessness.
The etiological factor lies in living under the
Israeli occupation with no foreseeable resolution.
WIAMH
invites the World Psychiatric
Association to investigate this phenomenon thoroughly. What is it? Is it a
post-traumatic stress? However
we are not looking at PTSD here because there is no Post, it is
continuous trauma. It is the result of Continuous TS coupled to no one in the World community
responding to verbalized cries and pleas for help.
Given the prevalence of this behavior in various
troubled areas of the Global Village, WIAMH hopes that the WPA will set an
international task force to make a thorough investigation of the phenomenon. Given the asymmetry of power between Israelis and Palestinians it is incumbent upon members of WPA to demand that Palestinians be protected and their human needs be accorded the same as Israelis and our brothers and sisters.
q
A RESPONSE
FROM DR. WALID SARHAN: CONSULTANT PSYCHIATRIST
From:
"Al-Rashid
Hospital" <info@alrashidhosp.com>
To:
felsendiony@yahoo.com
Subject:
Dear
Dr. EL-Sendiony
Date:
Sat,
8 Dec 2001 08:44:51 +0200
Dear Dr. EL-Sendiony
AL-Salam Alikum wa Rahmt Allah wa Barkatoh. I am
amazed and shocked to read the article (Suicide Bombing: A Socio-, Cultural
Bound Syndrome). In the newsletter VOL.1, No.XII, Twelfth Issue Oct. 2001.
Do the Palestinians have to be sick to defend their
land? The syndrome is
Yours,
Walid Sarhan
q
A RESPONSE TO
DR. SARHAN'S LETTER
Dear Dr. Walid,
I would like to thank you for your interesting
contribution to the debate of this highly charged issue, both of intense
interest to Israeli and Arab mental health workers.
However, I would like to register my cognitive
dissonance for some of the questions which you raised.
Surely the Palestinians don't have to be sick to
defend their land. It is very healthy from the mental point of view to fight
the occupation. It is also scientifically valid that the fight of the
oppressed against the oppressor enhances his mental health. Psychological
studies have shown that participation of children and adolescents in the
Intifada lifted their self-esteem.
But surely the barbarian and un-humanitarian methods
of an apartheid regime have endangered and seriously impaired the mental
health of the Palestinians.
And to add injury to insult they are blaming the
victim.
Zionists have labeled the Palestinian suicide
bombers as "Blood Thirsty Terrorists". Following the Zionists lead,
Hollywood has demonized Arab Muslims. Last year the film was "Rules
of Engagement" which vilified and demonized whatever, or whoever are
Arabs and Muslim.
Our approach is not a "Picking between Mad
and Bad". However we start from the fact that the Israeli occupation
has seriously impaired the mental health of the Palestinians. And we have to
demonstrate as Arab mental health workers, the damage which has occurred to
the Palestinian mental health. We don't have to let them get away with it.
The Israeli rule of the occupied territories is the highest
rule of immorality. As a testimony to the great damage which happens to the
Palestinian psyche, I refer you to the following documentary film entitled "Occupation
101" http://www.occupation101.com/
The world is not adequately informed of the human
circumstances under which the Palestinians live – of how, for instance, the
Israeli army has prevented the flow of food and medicine to thousands of
wounded civilians. For the last year it has been a daily exercise for Israeli
troops to bombard residential areas, gun down demonstrators and assassinate
public figures – all in response to protests in which the Palestinians have
only stones for weaponry.
The tragedy is deepening. Israel is using helicopter
gun ships to kill Palestinian civilians and destroy their homes. Palestinian
children and youngsters are being destroyed by Israeli armament for
protesting with stones inside Palestinian territory.
How many children face psychological Traumas
after Israeli attacks on Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps,
attacks that have been continuing for 35 years? What kind of harvest will be
reaped from such trauma? What are the results of wakening children at
midnight, so they can watch their fathers and brothers being taken away? What
kind of men and women will emerge from such a tortured generation, raised
under such a murderous occupation?
The answers to these questions are that these long
systematic traumatizations must have serious repercussions on the mental
health of the Palestinians. Dr. Walid Sarhan, you are asking for the criteria
for the syndrome which I have suggested. The criteria is to live in a
socio-political situation like the present Israeli occupation which is "Genocide
in Slow Motion; an Apartheid
Regime."
Thus pre-disposing factors are chronic psychosocial
stressors (the Israeli Occupation), a rejecting and chaotic environment.
Another criterion is feelings of hopelessness.
Living under these conditions induces a feeling of
"false-hope business" and it also causes a lot of anguish which
might trigger a murder syndrome among some people.
Dr. Walid Sarhan, you view depression as a stigma. I
don't see it this way. For the last year I felt very depressed as a result of
daily exposure to violent TV in which I witnessed the murderous behavior of
the Israeli army which is testimony to humanity in short supply. "I am
not ashamed of being human".
I would recommend you to read WIAMH newsletter 9,
January 2001 entitled
"An Apartheid Regime Endangers the Mental
Health of Victimized Palestinians."
Dr. Walid, would you kindly circulate this debate
among mental health workers in Jordan. We need more understanding of this
phenomenon. It is an interdisciplinary complicated issue. It needs further debate.
Sincerely Dr. Mohammed Farouk El Sendiony
q
WHO IS THE
TERROSIST?
WIAMH would like to assure its readers
of its full support for all genuine efforts to combat terrorism, and to bring
those who deliberately harm innocent people for political gain to justice.
But what is terrorism?
The State Department’s report, “Patterns
of Global Terrorism: 1999” published on May the 1st states "The
term "terrorism" means premeditated, politically motivated violence
perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine
agents, usually intended to influence an audience."
This definition may be overly narrow,
since it defines "terrorism" principally on the basis of the
identity of its perpetrator rather than by the action and motive of the perpetrator.
Hence, if Israel launches a massive attack on Gaza and deliberately drives
several hundred people from their homes, openly threatens and targets
civilians, and states that all of this is intended to pressure the
Palestinian Authority, as Israel is continuing to do until January 2002, it
does not fall under the definition of terrorism, solely because the State
Department recognizes Israel to be a state.
If, by contrast Palestinian people
organize themselves to resist an internationally condemned foreign occupation
of their soil, the State Department terms this “Terrorism” even when such
people restrict their targets to enemy combatants in occupied territory.
May WIAMH suggest the State Department
broaden its definition of terrorism to include state terrorism. While
terrorism as defined by the Sate Department is certainly disturbing, compared
with the number of victims of state terrorism, it is relatively a minor
concern. If you include statistics for state terrorism, observers could then
objectively evaluate for example, PKK activities on the one hand against
premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against
non-combatants carried out by the Turkish government.
This would provide the public with a
fuller picture of the problem and analysts and policy makers with better
information to make policy recommendations which could end a political
conflict, injustices, and occupations which in nearly every case seem to
generate the phenomenon known as “Terrorism”.
q
ZIONISTS AND
TERRORISM – IT IS OFFICIAL
What will follow is an official
recognition by the Israeli army acknowledging of being terrorists. It is
entitled "Zionists and terrorism – it is official". It is from the
Guardian Weekly, March 19, 1989 Vol. 140 No. 12.
"Zionists and terrorism – it is official"
Dr. Joseph Lerner (letters Jan. 22) claimed that
Zionist fighters were not terrorist on the basis that their action involved
military actions. He cited the infamous Deir Yassin massacre which claimed
the lives of approximately 250 Arabs as an example of such military actions.
However, a recent examination of sensitive Israeli documents of the early
period of Israel does not support Dr. Lerner’s claim and substantially
verifies that Zionist fighters were « terrorists ». Memories of
those times have been revived by a new and brutally frank history book for
the 1948 Palestine war, published by the Israeli Army, which provided the
first official confirmation that the infamous Deir Yassin massacre was
carried out despite a peace agreement between the Arab village and its Jawish
neighbors, « The villagers were keeping to the agreement between us and
we could not attack them in such an
ugly way » the author wrote.
The author of this
new book, which has been held up by the government censorship for 15 years in
Yitzhak Levi, who served as the Jerusalem commander of the Intelligence
Service of the Hagranah the mainstream Zionist militia which formed the basis
for the Israeli Army. His account
is the first to be based on official Israeli archives. He goes a long way to
debunking other, enduring, myths of the 1948 war « From war to war,
Israel is learning to look itself in the eyes », wrote Tom Segev the
historian and journalist « What it sees is not very pleasant ».
I appreciate Dr. Lerner’s letter However, his claims are not only
superficial, they are also misleading. They are not supported by official
Israeli archives.
Dr.
Mohammed Farouk El Sendiony
Riverina-Murray Inst… Wagga Wagga, NSW |
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