Beneficial Exhibition Organized by University of J’Burg Library

Mohamed Ousman

Sha'ban 23, 1446 2025-02-22

Daily News Analysis

by Mohamed Ousman

After decades of struggle against the terroristic Apartheid regime, the people of South Africa finally achieved a breakthrough.

While the struggle for complete emancipation from the yoke of colonialism is unfinished business, at least certain freedoms, including freedom of expression, have been entrenched as a fundamental right.

Upholding this freedom, the University of Johannesburg (UJ) Library invited interested companies, faculties, divisions, organizations, and student societies to showcase their services and products during the upcoming student expo.

The expo was/is scheduled on the following dates:
21-28 February and 6-14 March 2025 at its various campuses.

This is a progressive step as the university, previously known as Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit, was widely seen as a racist exclusivist supremacist enclave catering for Afrikaners at which even the medium of instruction was Afrikaans.

Readers will recall that on June 16, 1976 young students were brutally massacred and gave their lives as they peacefully protested against Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in schools.

So this first phase of freedom has not come cheap.

The theme of the UJ Library Student Welfare Expo, as the name suggests, was welfare.

The primary goal of the expo was to engage with students on various aspects of their well-being.

This included physical activity and sport, nutrition, disease prevention, mental and social health, risky behaviour, environmental care, sustainability, and social responsibility.

In line with this goal, students took it upon themselves to exhibit the award winning tafsir, The Ascendant Qur’an (TAQ) which takes a proactive approach towards contributing solutions aimed at addressing the above stated goals.

Students were treated to ground-breaking information as they interacted with passages from TAQ.

It opened the minds of students who now viewed the Qur’an as providing all-encompassing guidance beyond mere theological disputes which polarized communities to the benefit of those who thrive on oppression and exploitation.

As students read passages from Volume 2, pages 346-349 and pages 352-353 which discourses on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) they were admittedly better informed about its dangers.

Volume 3, pages 39-44-51 provides the necessary perspective on substance abuse/alcohol abuse from a social perspective while pages 128-141 articulates the importance of breast-feeding in order to have healthy babies.

Exploring the literature on exhibition further, the more “scholarly/academic” students were fascinated by Volume 7, pages 35-42 and pages 46-47 which discourses about the harms of sugar, elaborations on fermentation and how cravings are linked to premenstrual syndrome, depression, and seasonal mood changes.

As some students have been exposed to polemic discourse that has polarized communities along theological lines, many naturally had been influenced by oriental literature as well as the sectarian clergy-class on the extreme fringes of Muslim society who parrot wife-beating, child brides etc.

This resulted in many questions pertaining to whether Islam was spread by the sword, ‘Aa’isha’s age of 6 when she was married to a 54-year-old Prophet, jizyah, wife beating, etc.

While these aspects were clarified, in order to stick to the theme of the Expo, students were surprised to learn, that despite un-necessary divisions mostly based on ignorance or misinformation, Volume 9 page 71 elaborates on the permissibility of Muslims to consume the food from people of previous scriptures, viz. Jews and Christians.

This enlightenment provided fertile ground to build bridges among different communities and students active in social justice struggles looked forward to Muslims participating more actively in alleviating the joint suffering of humanity.

Pages 76-114 and pages 82-110 of the said volume, elaborated on the dangers associated with food spoilage, artificial colorants, preservatives, processed foods, food poisoning, “natural” being undefined, irradiation, fast foods and meat packing, etc.

All of these are currently burning issues in South Africa where children are dying or being hospitalized due to consumption of expired or unhealthy foods resulting in a crisis that has become a national concern.

Volume 9 pages 129-136 deals with issues of water pollution, diseases, etc.

Volume 11 pages 84-101 and 112-126 informed students about the harms associated with binge eating, starvation and the benefits of asceticism as well as the harms associated with substance abuse respectively.

Volume 12 pages 348-101 and pages 348-358 clarified to yet other curious students the Islamic concepts of halal (permissible), haram (impermissible), what constituted healthy meat, what is kosher and also what is toxic meat.

Rounding off an informative day related to health was engagements with volume 13 pages 162-170 which dealt with the aspects of extravagance, over indulging, and dieting which contributed to lifting the awareness of students who are generally prone to consuming junk/unhealthy foods.

What seemed to be a win-win for all, viz. the organisers, the exhibitors and most importantly the students was threatened by, of all people, a Muslim student body.

Crescent International has been informed that Executive members of the said student body have even resorted to bullying tactics, and intimidation bordering on gangsterism towards the exhibitors and they have even gone to the extent of threatening to disrupt the exhibitions by protests should the UJ Library allow the above ideas to be exhibited.

They have even resorted to social media in order to spread misinformation about the literature on exhibition.

This is unusual, even abnormal, as a university is a place for a festival of ideas where students interact with ideas, ideologies and philosophies hailing from diverse quarters, Islamic and otherwise.

That young students would demonstrate such intolerance indicates the influence of external forces who are poisoning young and innocent minds with dogma, intolerance and bigotry.

This shameful behavior represents an attempt to reverse the hard fought gains of South Africans, to have universities, especially in South Africa, open spaces where ideas are presented and vigorously debated thereby returning to an era where censorship was the norm.

It is advised, in the interest of Islam and for the benefit of humanity, that Muslims sit together as brothers and sisters to discuss and resolve their differences as instructed by Allah.

Crescent International will be closely monitoring the situation to see if the organisers concede to threats thereby infringing on the right to freedom of expression that was hard-fought for.