Are we doing enough for our Youth?

What are your thoughts on having a Youth Hotline?
Other communities have them, why don't we?
As humans there is a desire and need to socialize with others. Have we provided a platform for our youth to voice themselves? Do they have an outlet?

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Permalink Reply by Hazrat Amin on January 2, 2010 at 9:43pm: I think most of us do not know how to help the youth, may be because we have little or no idea as to what challenges they are facing. What do you think should be a starting point to have proper centers for helping youth?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Imran Randhawa on January 3, 2010 at 6:48pm: This first and foremost thing is to recognize that youth have their own set of problems and need an outlet to voice themselves.
Secondly is to realize and accept that our youth will and do confront everyday issues as any other youth.
The youth are dealing with a plethora of issues such as:
1. Environmental pressures (be it from peers and or parents. This also include bullying and chil abuse)
2. Self esteem and confidence issues. (this is deals with youth obesity, hijab, color and race, bullemia)
3. Drugs
4. Dating (sex)
5. Alcohol
6. Mental disabilities (depression, anxiety etc...)
7. etc...

Once we determine that there is a need for social services for our youth we can always get in touch with organizations that actually specialize in such programs. They can come in and train or provide their input as to how to go about setting up such a program. There are also plenty of available resources online that we can use. Interestingly I saw a documentary today about this exact topic - http://www.pbs.org/wnet/cryforhelp/
Here's another site with good info - http://www.challengeday.org/
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Permalink Reply by myCrescent.com on January 3, 2010 at 9:15pm: You are correct. Recently, I am hearing about drug abuse problem among the youth in the community. If its true, it is a serious issue. Imam Yaseen in Plano continuously emphasize the need for youth programs. Have you ever spoken to him about this?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Imran Randhawa on January 4, 2010 at 10:42am: No I have not had the chance to speak to any imam as of yet. I really need someone or a group of people that will take the lead on this. I can manage it but I really won't have the time to go back and forth with masjids trying to figure out who will fund it and who claim it to be theirs etc... Another words I don't want to deal with the politics :)

Since this is for the youth it might be a good idea to get the youth involved in this project from the grass root level; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Komal Khan on January 4, 2010 at 1:24pm: Imran,
I like your approach to this Hotline. Clearly you are identifying some major issues young people face-with some minor exceptions.For example, I do not understand how depression and anxiety are considered "Mental disabilities". Still, I like your ideas. I feel like it is imperative to be clear and specific when identifying the purpose of this hotline- maybe look at organizations like the Boys and Girls Clubs of America (http://www.bgca.org/) - they have established a hotline per club and have been recognized on a national level for over a decade. I think you are already headed in the right direction by researching.
If I could add something, it would probably be an emphasis on sensitive, mature, and professional individuals to handle these incoming calls. Of course I know this is a later step, this might be something to keep in mind especially in PR work. Developing an image for this hotline, especially in it's early stages, kind of establishes a reliable and trustworthy network for the youth.
Overall I think your ideas are wonderful and wish you the best of luck.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Imran Randhawa on January 4, 2010 at 2:13pm: After some brief research on depression, some of the symptoms were related to chemical imbalances in the brain. Some more info on the different types of depression can be found - http://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/depression-symptoms-and-types
I wouldn't label them as mental disabilities when marketing such a program.

I mentioned about getting the youth involved what I meant was to use them for survey and research purposes. Help finding online resources that we can use, finding a list of organizations, existing marketing materials etc... I was not thinking of having them represent the organization and do PR work. But you are right that if this is done, then it must be done right first time around. It must come across as professional and mature however since it's tailoring to the youth it must be approachable by the youth. If the youth feel that it is associated to mosque or the people running it are much older than them they may feel resistent towards opening up. They may feel that their parents or the community might find out type of thing.
I'd like to have mosques and organizations involved in marketing and funding it but it also needs to have some sort of independant distinction. Since our target audience are "troubled teens" and it does not necessarily mean they are all invovled in the community.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Imran Randhawa on January 7, 2010 at 8:36pm: Do we have to wait until it comes to this? It seems that our community tends to reactive rather than proactive. Do NOT wait until our kids go too far off the wrong end. This is a perfect example of that!!!!

Son accused of hiring classmate to kill mom
By BRIAN ROGERS
Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle

From the beginning, Houston police say, they doubted 17-year-old Danish Moazzam Minhas' story about finding his mother's bloody body in their apartment.

The Lee High School student told investigators he'd spent the entire night out and came upon the crime scene when he returned home that morning in late November. The attacker, Minhas told detectives, must have surprised 43-year-old Tabassum Khan while she was counting money she planned to spend on bills and the traditional Muslim feast of Eid.

Evidence inside the apartment convinced police that Khan hadn't gone down without a fight. Stabbed dozens of times, she still managed to put up enough resistance to wreck her home.

Six weeks later, authorities announced Wednesday that a fingerprint discovered at the scene led them to one of Minhas' classmates, who told police Minhas promised him $4,000 to kill his mother.

He is now charged with solicitation of capital murder, authorities said, and has confessed to arranging the killing because he felt his mother was too strict. Prosecutors have charged Nur J. Mohamed with capital murder in the Nov. 24 stabbing.

“They knew we had them,” Houston Police Sgt. Brian Harris said. “They knew they left too much evidence at the scene.”

The break in the case came weeks after the killing when a Houston ISD police officer caught Mohamed, an 18-year-old native of Somalia, with drugs on the Lee campus, Harris said. His fingerprints matched those left at the crime scene, Harris said.

Mohamed said Minhas promised him $4,000. He got only $1,000 from the apartment, Harris said.

Menhas and Mohamed were seen leaving school together on the day of the killing and Minhas acted as a lookout while Mohamad went into the apartment, Harris said.

Khan “was a fighter. She fought for her life. She fought and fought and fought,” Harris said of the slain woman. “That's why the scene was as gruesome as it was.”

Minhas' cousin said the family was devastated by Khan's death and by the accusations that Minhas had hired her killer.

“We did not expect any of this,” said Atif Iqbal. “He was my brother. He was our son. He was everything. We put all of our efforts into nurturing him and his education. Never in my wildest dreams did we ever think about him like this. He's 17 years old, for crying out loud.”

Said mom was too strict
Iqbal said Khan and Minhas came from Lahore, Pakistan, about 10 years ago. Minhas' father is not in contact with anyone in the family, his cousin said.

Minhas and Mohamad displayed no emotion about the crime and tried to charm investigators, Harris said.

“He's very manipulative, very cunning,” the detective said of Minhas, “and he was trying to put his spin on it.”

Dealing with Khan's son, Harris said, was a “cat-and-mouse game” until he was confronted with Mohamad's statement,

Then Minhas told police he “loved his mother to death” but she was too strict, Harris said. “I don't think he realized how that sounded. … She gave him a curfew, chores and other things a responsible parent does.”

Investigators also reviewed the teens' social networking Web pages on Facebook and MySpace.

“There's a whole narrative where he writes that he likes to be in charge and in control,” Harris said.

Saw himself as ‘a hero'
A week before his mother was killed, Minhas posted as his MySpace status, “It's all good ... waiting for things to happen.”

He wrote that he considers a hero to be “Anyone that can save the day, or come clean out of an embarrasing (sic) situation, then Hey, that person is a hero. . Wait that's me!”

Iqbal said his aunt wasn't too strict.

“She's a mom. He's a teenager, and he was getting in to the wrong things,” Iqbal said.

He also said Khan provided her son with new clothes, cell phones and a new car while she drove an older model.

“We fed him with a spoon made out of gold,” Iqbal said. “She worked 14 hours a day to support him.”

Chronicle reporters Mike Glenn, Dale Lezon and Ericka Mellon contributed to this story.

brian.rogers@chron.com; ▶ Reply to This