Hussein Kesvani
BuzzFeed News Reporter

In a quiet suburban house in north London, Abdul, a 43-year-old accountant, is lying on the beige carpet of his bedroom, writhing in pain. As he mumbles and occasionally screams, another man, who calls himself Abu Issa, sits cross-legged beside him, his hand gently touching Abdul’s temple.
Issa sports a thick, black mid-size beard and is draped in long robes. He is wearing an embroidered skullcap, and carries a tasbih, a small collection of string beads. As Abdul wriggles on the floor, Issa recites passages, known as surahs, from the Qur’an. Between surahs, he tells Abdul he must focus. “You must use all your energy to get rid of the spirits,” he says. “Pray to Allah [the almighty], and he will give you strength to do this.”
Abdul, a short, stocky man of Pakistani heritage, is one of many clients who come to Issa for “ruqyah”, an Islamic spiritual healing ritual that some Muslims believe can remedy both physical and mental illnesses.
Although ruqyah refers to specific prayers recited by Muslims who seek spiritual healing during prayer, it can also refer to physical rituals carried out on those who believe they have been “possessed” or taken over by invisible spirits, known in Arabic as “jinn”. Although many Muslims consider jinn to be evil for the most part, Islamic scholars have a complicated definition in which jinn are invisible entities of a separate world, and vary in how they interact with human beings. Where a jinn is considered to have taken over one’s mind or body, ruqyah is the procedure by which it is spiritually removed.
Ruqyah varies in how it is practised, ranging from simple prayers read out by an imam to grand physical rituals that sometimes involve the use of blessed water, ashes, and incense. Because the practice of ruqyah is unregulated in the UK, some in professional medical fields and the wider Muslim community have expressed concern that some Muslims are turning to ruqyah as a way to treat severe mental illnesses.
Moreover, some practitioners – known as “raaqis” – have told BuzzFeed News that an increasing number of people with poor or no training in ruqyah risk putting patients with mental health issues in danger, either by making their conditions worse or by preventing them from seeking professional help early on.
Prominent figures, including Nazir Afzal, the former chief crown prosecutor for the North West of England, have also warned about the “problem” of “self-proclaimed faith healers”, especially in situations that could lead to severe violence. Afzal referred to the 2012 murder of Naila Mumtaz, in which four men, including Mumtaz’s husband and brother in law, who were convicted of her killing cited their belief that she was possessed by an evil jinn.
Speaking after his ruqyah session, Abdul told BuzzFeed News he was diagnosed with depression three years ago and prescribed strong antidepressant medication by his local doctor. “The depression crept on me very suddenly,” he said. “I remember just one day feeling like this giant weight had been placed on my back… It just wouldn’t go away. There would be days when I’d spend most of it crying for no reason. And at night, I’d experience these nightmares that would always feature demons.”
When BuzzFeed News asked whether this improved when he took his medication, Abdul said no, it had made his mental state worse. “The medicine just messed around with my head,” he said. “It started making me see things that weren’t there, it would make me hear voices in my head … I realised the medicine wasn’t working, and that the problem was actually something else.”
Abdul said that after consulting his imam at the local mosque and speaking to members of his family, he was convinced the problem was supernatural. “When you have voices in your head telling you to stop praying or to do anything that disobeys Allah, you know the problem is more than just psychological,” he said, adding: “Since I’ve been seeing the raaqi, I’ve felt much better and happier.”
Because of the lack of information on how many people visit faith healers in the UK, BuzzFeed News was unable to determine how widespread raaqis are across the country or how many people opt to visit them rather than mainstream mental health practitioners. Some raaqis, who did not want to be named, told BuzzFeed News they estimate there could be up to 10,000 in Britain.
Though most raaqis in the UK practise individually, usually meeting clients in mosques or at their homes, there are some who run specialist centres. One of the UK’s largest is the Abu Ruqya centre in east London, which claims to have treated hundreds of people who have been “possessed by jinn” and other forms of black magic.
Although the centre’s owner, who goes by the Islamic name Abu Ruqya, declined to be photographed or formally interviewed by BuzzFeed News, he claimed to be one of the country’s most respected raaqis, and said he had helped cure people who “had illnesses…mental and physical health issues that doctors were unable to fix”. Though Ruqya did not cite his practice as an alternative to professional medical care in regards to mental health, the centre’s website says it treats those who are “unaware they have a spiritual affliction”.
According to Professor Swaran Singh, head of mental health and wellbeing at Warwick Medical School, a majority of people in some religious communities in the UK seek help from faith healers.
Singh told BuzzFeed News the type of faith healing varied between communities, but in some instances it was being chosen over mainstream mental health care.
“It’s not a small minority of Muslims that seek faith healing,” he said, “and according to our research conducted last year, not all of them experienced bad things as a result. It’s worth noting that this type of treatment varies a lot between people who administer it. Sometimes you’ll have imams who recite Qur’anic passages to soothe people. On the other hand, you’ll have people who are unqualified, performing dangerous rituals on people with significant problems.

“[Ruqyah] and other faith healing should not be considered as a treatment. We found that although it was providing comfort, in some cases it was getting in the way of seeking actual medical treatment … and in the long term, that could be very dangerous.”
But another issue some have raised with ruqyah is the lack of regulation – something that practitioners of other religious therapy rituals highlighted earlier this year. As a result, some have warned that vulnerable people are susceptible to being exploited, or worse, not treating severe medical conditions until it is too late.
Yusuf Ali, a well-known raaqi in Luton, Bedfordshire, who claims to have studied ruqyah for nearly a decade, told BuzzFeed News that the lack of regulation over who can practise ruqyah is a growing problem affecting Muslim communities.
“Some of these Muslim communities lack knowledge about mental health,” he said. “It’s a fairly new topic for most people, but you still have some families worried that if their daughter has a mental health issue that needs medication, it might end her marriage prospects, or affect the family’s reputation in their communities. So sometimes you’ll see families with children who have major depression or severe schizophrenia, and they’ll put it down to a curse or an evil jinn. In those cases I’d say that they would need to go see a specialist.”

Ali added: “I know of other people who claim to be raaqis, who won’t say anything because they just want to make some money.” He believes that a better method of vetting raaqis is required, and that it would also need to involve being more open to talking about mental health. “Things are getting better across the UK, alhamdulillah, but we still don’t talk a lot about mental health in the context of Islam. We talk a lot about spiritual health, so that might lead people to view a mental health problem as a spiritual health problem.”
Like many raaqis in the UK, Issa carries out ruqyah part-time (his day job is as an IT consultant). He told BuzzFeed News that he had learnt how to carry out the rituals while living in the Middle East, learning from scholars in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Syria. Though he primarily works in the UK, he does not have to answer to any professional body.
He’s aware that some might consider his practice to be dangerous. “The issue in the UK is that we have a secular medical system, which doesn’t account for the spirituality of the individual,” he said in a telephone interview. “I’m not against professional medical treatment ­­– there are many Muslim doctors who work in the field of mental health who will tell you that you can marry spiritual and physical wellbeing, and that ruqyah, which is something that is intrinsic to the belief of many people, can complement traditional medical treatment.” He insisted that he’s successfully treated individuals diagnosed with severe depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and even suicidal ideations.
But Issa admitted that there is a grey area between medical and nonmedical treatment, which, particularly in the case of mental health, can put some patients at risk.
He cited several cases where raaqis have allegedly extorted money from patients, including one family whose daughter was discovered to be self-harming, and another instance where a man with schizophrenia spent two years seeing a spiritual healer in the belief he was possessed by evil spirits, before eventually seeking professional medical help.
“Raaqis don’t have to answer to any official body,” he said, “which means they hold the responsibility to judge whether they should treat patients. … As a rule, I will not treat people who evidently have severe mental illnesses, the ones who need medicinal treatment.”

By Catrin Nye BBC Asian Network and BBC Newsnight

​UK health and social workers and those in the criminal justice system are increasingly having to understand belief in spiritual possession among ethnic minorities, with new research highlighting a particular issue with some sections of the British Asian community blaming mental health problems on the supernatural.
The exorcist Abou Mohammed sits cross-legged on the floor of a back-room in his home in Ilford, East London. He is surrounded by copies of the Koran, containers of olive oil and a spray-bottle of water which he uses on the Jinn, the supernatural spirits, that he says possess many of his clients.

Image caption Mudasar Khan says that exorcism has helped him where medication failed Mr Mohammed, who goes by the title of Raqi, has a waiting list several months long and charges £60 for a one-hour session.
One of his clients is Mudasar Khan, 41, who says he has been possessed by a Jinn for years. He describes it as something that surrounds his body, buzzing, making him unwell and even stopping him sleeping.
Mr Khan has been on anti-depressants in the past and suffered panic attacks, but he says the Jinn prevented medication from working and that it is only coming to Abou Mohammed that has provided some relief.
"I had to go to the doctors and the hospitals too, to prove it to my family, because if I didn't do that side of it as well they'd think it was in my head," he says.
For five years Mr Khan has been treated by Mr Mohammed, who he says summons up the Jinn inside of him and speaks to it directly, easing its effect.
'Power to cure'Mr Mohammed knows what he does is controversial - while we are filming his work he also films us, concerned that we will distort what he does - and he says that there are many charlatans in his field.
The exorcist believes some illnesses are unnecessarily dealt with by doctors when they are actually spiritual problems. He even says some people have operations they do not need because the Jinn has tricked doctors.

Image caption Abou Mohamed believes that Jinn can trick doctors into carrying out unnecessary procedures "I cure them by this book [the Koran]. You have to have a faith in it and it will work. So yes, anxiety, depression, heart problems, many, believe me, many problems get cured by this healing."
Despite this, Mr Mohammed admits he does have some clients come to him who are seriously ill and need medical attention, particularly those who are mentally unwell.
When 20-year-old Nadeem (whose name we have changed) became ill he and his family thought he had a spiritual problem, that he was also possessed by a Jinn:
"I was at home and I was with my family and their faces looked different to me, my senses changed as well," he recalls. "I tried to lie down to sleep, but too many things were going through my mind and I felt my head is getting narrowed getting tight. My thinking is big; I'm thinking a lot of things."
He says that in the night he went down stairs and told his father how he was feeling:
"My parents got worried, they said don't worry we'll call a certain guy and he'll sort it out... so they called a person who's got the power to control these things and take them out."
'Writhing on the floor'Nadeem's parents took him to an exorcist for treatment:
What are Jinn?

• In Arabic mythology supernatural spirits below the level of angels and devils
• They possess the bodily needs of human beings, but they are free from all physical restraints
• Jinn delight in punishing humans for any harm done to them, intentionally or unintentionally
• They are said to be responsible for many diseases and all kinds of accidents
• Their existence is further acknowledged in official Islam, which indicated that they, like human beings, would have to face eventual salvation or damnation
• In Islam Jinn can be seen as good or bad

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Academic edition
"I was physically fidgeting and flinching all over the place. I was on the floor in my house and I was screaming and the Jinn was trying to come out of my mouth," he says.
Nadeem says he felt better for his treatment, but that he did not recover and was eventually taken to hospital. He is now diagnosed with schizophrenia and takes daily medication.
Cases like Nadeem's, in which his illness was instantly attributed to possession, are not entirely uncommon and are a cause for concern among mental health professionals.
Professor Swaran Singh, head of the Mental Health and Wellbeing division at Warwick Medical School, has just completed a five year study, funded by the Department of Health, into why patients from ethnic minority backgrounds were often reaching mental health services in a more severely ill state than the rest of the population.
"We found that in the very early stages when people have depression or anxiety, they seek help through their GP because it looks like a psychological problem. When they become seriously unwell, like when they develop delusions or start hearing voices, then the groups diverge.
"The Asian groups, particularly the British Pakistanis, then attribute their problem to a religious cause, for instance, possession by a Jinn. So they seek help through the Imams, through the mosque," he says.
Among British Asians the belief in evil spirits is not uncommon. It can be concepts like black magic or the evil eye, it can also be that the body can be possessed causing physical harm.
British Muslims in particular are brought up learning of the existence of Jinn in the Koran, though what the Jinn actually are is not universally agreed upon.
Source of blameProf Singh says that religious care can bring a great deal of comfort to patients, but it can create serious problems if it is the only help sought:
"An extreme example I can think of was this Sikh gentleman who became ill when he was 18, but the family sought help within the community faith group, and he didn't come for psychiatric attention for 13 years. By that time a lot of damage has been done from the untreated illness."
An extreme example I can think of was this Sikh gentleman who became ill when he was 18, but the family sought help within the community faith group, and he didn't come for psychiatric attention for 13 years. By that time a lot of damage has been done from the untreated illness
Professor Swaran Singh, Head of Mental Health and Wellbeing division at Warwick Medical SchoolAs well as the misdiagnosis of mental health problems there have been other extreme consequences to the attribution of possession. In September this year four members of the same family were found guilty of the murder of 21-year-old Naila Mumtaz in Birmingham.
Birmingham Crown Court was told that Mrs Mumtaz's in-laws, Zia Ul-Haq and Salma Aslam, who along with her husband Mohammed Mumtaz and brother-in-law Hammad Hassan were convicted of her killing, thought she was possessed by evil spirits.
The trial heard evidence that she was killed as family members attempted to drive out a harmful Jinn spirit.
Naila's brother Nasir Mehmood believes Jinn was used as a way of "explaining away" the death:
"The thinking behind her in-laws was that they would have the body released, take it back home to Pakistan, and say Jinn did it. Jinn killed her. There's no reason to explain anything further than that. People are very susceptible to believe that sort of stuff," he says.
Tony Medhi, a family friend who helped Mr Mehmood through the case, says he is very used to seeing spiritual possession used as a "catch all" for any problems in the British Pakistani community he grew up in:
"The Jinn concept is used to keep society in its place. If somebody isn't behaving correctly, maybe somebody's behaviour is very extreme, it could be due to some mental illness, or physical disability or something like that, people will turn around and say 'it's Jinn. Jinn has done this to her or him'."
'Operating in the shadows'This has also been the experience of Yasmin Ishaq, a teacher from Rotherham who said she became a healer herself because she saw peoples' beliefs being exploited:
"If somebody was saying I was being abused, or I'm living in horrific conditions, they would automatically silence them by saying 'she's possessed'. I'm talking from personal experiences - family members, neighbours, community members - where women were beaten on the premise that they were possessed when really it was just violence against women."
"Here today, in 2012, we have men claiming in national newspapers that they can fix all your problems, that they can basically sort out every kind of problem for a price."
Nazir Afzal, the Chief Crown Prosecutor for the North-West of England, says that "problem" healers are something the police are getting intelligence on.

Image caption Naila Mumtaz was murdered by four members of her family "We're becoming more aware of it. I'm actually very pleased we've been talking to lots of community groups who want to tackle this themselves," he says.
However, there is still a long way to go. In the Naila Mumtaz case it is thought that the "healer" was in the room when she died. That person, as has happened in other cases, has never been traced.
"They do operate in the shadows. They are protected by others within their communities, or within their faiths, or within their places of worship. They may leave the country. So it can be very difficult to track down the healers," Mr Afzal says.
"That said, the police are getting a lot more intelligence from within the community in the hope that we can identify these people before serious harm occurs."
This is an issue that is not going away. The spiritual care department at East London's Mental Health Trust, which covers what is now one of the most ethnically diverse parts of the UK, says that their services were established to serve a community where religion was dying out, but that now most of their patients value the spiritual as much as they do science.
Prof Singh argues that education is vital among communities so that these healers do not get in the way of medical care:
"For panic attacks and depression, the current treatment now is not medication, it's talking therapies, and in some cultures this means talking to a healer, so it may work."
"It becomes problematic when it becomes an alternative to medical care - so when instead of taking medication, they rely exclusively on religious ceremony or religious procedure. That's not going to treat the condition, so faith may offer comfort but it doesn't offer a cure for illness."