Under scrutiny, UKM distances itself from medical forum on djinns and black magic
(The Malay Mail) – 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).
