STATEMENT: RECENT UNREST AT UNIVERSITIES

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيم

(In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful)

STATEMENT: RECENT UNREST AT UNIVERSITIES

Following the recent protests that have take place at universities across the country, the Union of Muslim Students' Associations (MSA Union) of South Africa would like to clarify and reiterate its stance on the decolonisation movement. 

MSA Union is in full support of the continued #FeesMustFall movement, fundraising campaigns by SRCs and the broader movement towards our institutions of learning becoming decolonised, African institutions. The fact that our institutions of higher learning are, after 22 years of democracy, still plagued by colonial and oppressive structural policies is, to us, an injustice committed against the people of South Africa. With the Almighty commanding Muslims towards justice many times in the Holy Quran, we cannot be a neutral party in these protests, and at the very least, we must speak out against it.

We note recent calls for peace in light of these protests – and while they might be noble, we recognise that true peace does not exist until justice has been achieved and these calls should not mean we stop addressing the serious societal issues in our universities. Furthermore, calls for peace that are used as a disguise to silence the voice of black students must be exposed as such and steered away from. As the MSA, we do not advocate for any violence and destruction of public property as these acts are not in the best interests of students, but we stress that the entire movement and principle on which the student protests has been based cannot be justifiably delegitimised because of them.

May we all find the strength to fight injustice wherever we come across it, and may Allah SWT grant justice to the people of South Africa.

“Indeed, Allah orders justice and good conduct and giving to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression. He admonishes you that perhaps you will be reminded.” (Quran 16:90)

Issued by the Union of Muslim Students’ Associations of South Africa

29 February 2016

For more information, contact:

Nadeem Mahomed                                

President

071 891 8722 | union.president@msa.org.za

Aaisha Dadi Patel

Head of Politics & South African and International Affairs

071 358 5104 | union.politics@msa.org.za