KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 9 — Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s (UKM) Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities has denied it is the organiser of a regional forum to help local Muslim doctors reconcile their beliefs in spiritual beings and black magic with modern medicine.
Possibly anticipating a backlash, a senior lecturer in the public university said the forum is the sole initiative of a group in a Long-Term Research Grant Scheme (LRGS) spearheaded by Nor Azian Ab Rahman a post-graduate student at UKM.
“The programme is not under the faculty. It is jointly organised by the Research Group LRGS/TD/2012/USM-UKM/KT/03,” Associate Professor Dr Supyan Hussin, the deputy director of UKM’s Centre for Teaching and Learning Technologies, told Malay Mail Online over the phone yesterday.
The group referred to by Supyan is one of the five LRGS groups under a RM7 million five-year programme between Malaysia’s second-oldest university and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) compiling “local knowledge” under the theme of “healing”.
Supyan is the lead researcher for the group of six PhD students; he also supervises Nur Azian whose field of research is in “Islamic Complementary Medicine”.
Yesterday, Malay Mail Online reported that the forum will feature several international faith healers, a surgeon from Indonesia, and a local medical officer to share their experiences in dealing with “supernatural cases” and “djinns” (genie).
Supyan however played down the supernatural aspect of the talk, saying the forum was only meant to compile information about Islamic complementary medicine to be put in a “hologram” for the group’s research project.
The project on Holographic Transdisciplinary Conservation, Supyan said, will also contain information about other forms of healing from the research projects undertaken by the other doctorate students.
The forum, scheduled for November 29 and 30 is held in collaboration with the Federation of Islamic Medicine Practitioners’ Associations (Gappima) and a UK-based faith healing group Professional Islamic Support and Nurture Group (Pisang).
Azian is also Pisang’s secretary and director of research, in addition to Gappima’s assistant secretary.
The poster of the forum had initially featured UKM as the main organiser, but an amended poster later supplied by Nur Azian indicated the research group as the organiser instead.
The regional forum is funded by the Selangor Zakat Board.
Among the topics to be discussed are “black magic phenomena in medical cases” and “djinn possession in mental health disorder”.
The speakers slated to talk are: Dr Sagiran, a surgeon with Muhammadiyah University of Yogyakarta, Indonesia; Fadhlan Abu Yasir, the president of Indonesian faith healing group Ruqyah Syar’iyyah; Pisang’s president Hamidi Abdul Rahman; and Ministry of Health’s medical officer Dr Hafizah Amanulla.
