This week's leadership messages include a blog from Kamran Mahmood for Islamophobia Awareness Month, and two new podcasts

Islamophobia Awareness Month

As part of our Partnership’s Positive About Islam and Muslims campaign during Islamophobia Awareness Month that takes place during November, we will be sharing blogs from our Muslim colleagues from across our Partnership. This week’s message comes from Kamran Mahmood, from Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. The Partnership’s BAME Network has led on developing the area’s campaign to raise awareness of the positive contribution made by Muslims both in current times as well as historically.

Read the Partnership's statement

False positive Muslims and subtle Islamophobia: ‘He looks like a Muslim. He MUST be a Muslim.’

Hello, my name is Kamran.

The word ‘absurd’ would be a bit harsh here but that is how I feel when someone assumes that I belong to a certain faith based on their own imagination. I have been greeted on Eid day at my workplace by my colleagues; I have been asked ‘not even water?’ during the Muslim fasting month, most of them not being aware that I would be taking a lunch break with them few hours later. I have also been questioned about my religion by patients who would ask and answer the question at the same time – cataloguing me as a Muslim. I don’t carry traditional attire and my beard style exemplifies nothing but just the trend out there... but then again, a beard is not specified to Muslims alone. Then what makes me get the tag of nothing else but a Muslim?

Is it because I have black hair on my head and face?

Or because my eyes are not blue or green? Or because I am brown, which in all its generalisation, is an umbrella term for every South Asian who is wrongly perceived to belong to an Islamic faith? Or perhaps because I have a different way of speaking English? Whichever is an accurate reason.

I will always be stereotyped as a Muslim based on the above features. None of the western clothes, fake accent or White friends circle can hide the melanin of my skin and eumelanin of my hair, which seem to be the identity of my faith. The bottom-line is that no matter what I try to look like, I will always look like a typecast Muslim to the people around me.

You may think I am a Muslim but how far have you seen me beyond my exterior? I may not have visited the Mosque in years. I may not have fasted for even a single day during the month of Ramadhan over the last decade. I may not be taking a break from work during Friday afternoon to offer weekly congregational prayer. I may belong to some other religion. I may not even belong to any religion. I may be Gnostic. I may be Agnostic. I may be an Atheist. I may be on a spiritual journey of my own. I may have only started my quest for rationality. I may not want to associate with any religion including the religion of the house I was born in. I may see God differently, I may have a different image of God in my head, I may call him by a different name, I may not even call him. I may want to keep my belief as a private affair. I may want to be identified by my personality, my character, my nature, and not by which faith I belong to, or which book I follow. My ideas may have evolved over time and I may not be a follower of any particular school of thought, but because my physical features or genetic make-up cannot be altered, will I still have to live with a certain tag attached to my identity based on the outlook? In our world today, the answer is probably yes.

In this day and age when ideas such as gender fluidity are finally getting their due recognition and acceptance, why can we not coin a term on the similar notion when it comes to someone’s faith – something beyond religious stereotypes – perhaps a concept of religious fluidity. A person born with a certain phenotype in a certain geographical location that grows up in a certain religious cult or tradition does not necessarily remain in that confinement forever. You cannot assign faith at birth. Self-realization and exploration must be encouraged in individuals when it comes to faith rather than embedding a certain school of thought in a young mind.

My physical features should not and must not define my beliefs. I may look like a Muslim, Christian, Jew, Sikh, Buddhist or Hindu but you cannot classify me to any religious group based on my biological appearance unless explicitly indicated on my part.

When I am at work the only faith I belong to is my job. I should be faithful to my job and that is it. No other faith matters at that time. When I am outside work, my faith is my personal matter. No one knows what those personal beliefs are and hence should not stereotype based on what they see. My view is that a practicing Muslim is as likely to be at target of Islamophobia as the one who just ‘looks like a Muslim’ – a false positive in this case.

Thank you for reading,
Kamran

A new Veterans’ Mental Health Service for the North of England

A new NHS service for armed forces veterans experiencing severe mental health problems across the North of England has launched ahead of Remembrance Day this November. The Veterans’ Mental Health High Intensity Service provides care and treatment for veterans who are in a mental health crisis and need urgent help. It will do this by working with local mental health services that are already treating a veteran, to improve experience and outcomes for them.

The High Intensity Service is part of a new national service being rolled out across England. In the North of England, the service is being delivered in partnership between the NHS and well-established veterans’ support charities. Together, they will work with local mental health services to provide:  

• Support to crisis care services for veterans presenting in a mental health crisis
• Support during an inpatient unit stay – including access to a clinician advice line 24 hours a day, seven days a week
• Care navigation – helping veterans and their carers find the local services best suited to their needs, and
• Support and care for family members and carers where they need it. The lead provider of the new service is Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

Find out more about the Veterans' Mental Health Service.

Climate change

Travel grants: Do you have an idea to help people move more? Would you like some money to try something radical to get people out of their cars or to create a safer/quieter/healthier community? We are delighted to make grants up to £5000 available. Applications for 7 December. 

Respiratory care: Did you know that inhalers are some of the medicines that contribute the most to climate change? We are keen to find solutions that reduce their impact in a safe way and need primary care networks and GP practices to help via two schemes on respiratory care.

Training courses: We are delighted to fund 100 spaces on a Centre for Sustainable Healthcare Course for people working for our Partnership. This includes:

• Intro to sustainable healthcare
• Sustainable quality improvement
• Carbon footprinting for the health sector
• Green space & health.

Find out more on our Climate Change page.