JAFFA, Israel – The reason suicides in the United States reached a nearly three decade record is the absence of the right religion, i.e. Islam, Dr. Abdullah Maqat, a former senior lecturer in Islamic religion at Gaza’s Islamic University, contended to Breitbart Jerusalem in an interview.

Maqat was reacting to a study released on Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that found suicide rates in the U.S. have increased to a percentage of 13 per 100,000 people, reportedly the highest rate since 1986.

“The right religion induces tranquility, will power and self-acceptance, and invites people to enjoy life based on the rules of religion,” he said.

However, he said, “in America as in most Western societies there are anarchy and moral emptiness on all levels and in every aspect of life, and that leads to suicide. This moral, cultural, intellectual and religious emptiness has a much bigger impact on the person that their financial circumstances.”

“Moral values, solid religious affiliation and belief in the rules that the real religion dictates and most importantly their implementation significantly reduce the risk of suicide,” he said.

“Islam is beyond doubt the right religion that helps a man fix his life at the personal, spiritual, social and financial levels, because the rules are very clear, especially if they were properly implemented. Hence, the person is morally sound, despite the difficulties of life and someinfluences. Evidently, suicide is minimal in Muslim societies as opposed to Western ones, primarily the US. Those who commit suicide in Islamic countries simply lack faith and don’t suffer from the emptiness that a deficient set of social and moral values instigates.”

The recently revealed suicide statistics attest to why so many Americans and Westerners have chosen to convert to Islam, he continued. “It changed their lives, made them more content, happy and satisfied in a way they had not felt before their conversion. They understand that the Quran and Prophet Mohammed’s decrees hold the key to happiness.”

“I speak to many Westerners who converted, and they tell me that only now they understand the meaning of life and that materialism – the real essence of Western living – has expelled all other meanings of life.

They say what we say all the time: that despite the better financial situation and the seemingly numerous opportunities that it brings about, these societies are about to fall apart morally.”

Asked by Breitbart Jerusalem why some of the most backward societies are Islamic, Maqat said that “Western propaganda has tried to link Islam and the poor state of Islamic societies, but I’m saying that socially and personally, the Muslim is more at ease with himself and his surroundings. Of course, Islamic societies cope with much greater distress, but that’s because of our politicians, not our religion. Evidently, there are fewer suicides and mental problems here. The powerful societies of the West are only seemingly so, and will not survive in the long run.”

“Despite the difficult political situation, in Islamic societies there are a set of rules that define the relationship between the individuals –between children and adults, within and between families – in contrast to the increasingly frequent cases in the West of young people beating their parents, running away from home and suffering from alienation.

“The emptiness that is endemic to the American and Western societies leads people to lose their appetite for life. It’s not surprising that once your moral and religious foundations are fraught, and decadence and moral abandon become a norm, the individual breaks up. The moral collapse leads to social problems like alcohol and drug abuse, as well as many other immoral and obscene habits, and from there the road to suicide is very short.”