When you rise above hate and prejudice, you have success within reach. The main price of keeping someone down is staying down with that person too. Obafemi Awolowo University has in a systematic way been hell bent on keeping Islam and Muslims down and inevitably it has been kept down by its antics. While educational institutions the world over have been recognized as the bastions of independence thought and expressions thereof, Obafemi Awolowo University has decided to leap onto the other side of intellectual and progressive thoughts. It behooves normal, sane intellect of man to be able to see that differences in religious beliefs shouldn't prod me to attack you. Looks all the way like no one in the helms of decision making in OAU has ever come across the word 'xenophobia'.

OAU has earned the unenviable reputation of holding out as the major Educational propagator of hate and prejudice against Muslims. A short while ago, it was brought to our notice the inhuman ban on the wearing of the face veil by Muslims. This had been enforced with maximal intimidation and force, using threats, arrests and detentions: point blank reminders of the dark days of the Military. Shame! Agents of the school went to press and claimed that the obnoxious ban was for security reasons. Silly as the argument sounds, little did the unschooled degree holders realize that they were inadvertently alluding to our claim that this is classic Islamophobia.

Some unfortunate 3rd columnists also whipped up another disastrously laughable argument that the ban was only on the face veil (Niqob) and not obvious signs of Muslim identity. OAU would step up its creative niche of Islamophobia a few weeks back when[b] Muslim ladies were prevented from writing examinations in the Nursing department.[/b] The reason: they missed a practical class during the semester. The lecturer in charge went on to record this single miss as haven failed to make the required 75% attendance of lectures. While one would have expected that such a fraudulent mathematics only belongs in our corrupt political settings, the hatred for Islam ensured that more ignominy was dropped on OAU by these officials of the department. The story behind this happening is that there was a practical class that was rescheduled for the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital, Ile Ife as the OAU Teaching Hospitals Complex staffs were on strike then. The missionary hospital acted true to type by insisting that the Muslim ladies in headscarves remove their headscarves. The ladies insisted on keeping it on and were subsequently thrown out of the class. The story goes on till the bad mathematics of the Nursing department officials ensured that they didn’t write the examination.

Nothing could have emboldened these people if not the envisaged tacit approval of the higher authorities. How public officials decide to denigrate someone else's faith while thinking they are furthering theirs is beyond me. Obviously, these educators have not been well educated themselves. This should not in any way be seen as an isolated case as many such occurrences have been recorded. OAU could go on priding itself as celebrating the advancement of academic excellence or whatever, for all I care, its deviation from the moral standards expected of an institution of higher learning is rather unbecoming. While universities all around are deploying new means to harness the symbolic town and gown relationship, OAU is tearing up the gown and burning down the town.

Some people are obviously obsessed with Adolf Hitler and Ariel Sharon; two names that have brought untold hardship to the world because they saw any other person with a different way of life as less than human. This is exactly the same category that the various people at Obafemi Awolowo University that have made Muslim sisters their target in impressing their wounded egos fall into. And what an abysmal level to operate in at this present age of human advancement!

Someone sure didn’t read Langston Hughes.

"I have as much right

As the other fellow has

To stand on my two feet

And own the Land

I tire so of hearing people say,

Let things take their course

Tomorrow is another day.

I do not need my freedom when I'm dead

I cannot live on tomorrow's bread

Freedom is a strong seed

Planted in a great need

I live here, too.

I just want freedom

Just as you"

Muslims have suffered in the lands of their fathers, and the forceful conversion in order to have a mere primary education in the days of colonialism kick started this. One would have however expected a school of OAU's standing to act within its purview to dismember prejudice and hate. Alas, what do we have? The OAU authority and its many representatives have inadvertently pushed the Muslim woman to the lowest rung of the societal ladder. They have rendered our women low and vulnerable to insult by people whose education has failed to transform into agents of good. What a piece of headscarf or a face veil has done to harm these people may not be found out by rocket science or molecular biology but it is crystal clear: a striking hatred for Islam and Muslims.

They had nothing against them, except that they believed in Allah, the All-Mighty, Worthy of all Praise! Qur'an 85:8

In principle, Obafemi Awolowo University says "Muslims are not welcome here and they may go to blazes for all we care".OAU has done a great damage to liberty and equity; they have rendered those words hollow and empty.



http://www.facebook.com/notes/ibraaheem-dafrican-balogun-dsalafee/can-oau-do-without-hating-islam-and-muslims/10200717292524909

The story behind this happening is that there was a practical class that was rescheduled for the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital, Ile Ife as the OAU Teaching Hospitals Complex staffs were on strike then. The missionary hospital acted true to type by insisting that the Muslim ladies in headscarves remove their headscarves.

this caught my attention the most. Like, what the heck

So much for christian tolerance.






Oh my good lord, I am actually carrying this matter for head o! Injustice of the highest order. These people are being treated as refugees, if not below that level in their own country.


The OAU authorities must hear word o if this is true.

There have been a number of threads about this....

https://www.nairaland.com/1113465/muslim-sister-arrested-using-veil

https://www.nairaland.com/1161077/prosecution-discrimination-muslim-women-obafemi

wow! the issue is serious then and calls for some seriousness on the part of the Muslim ummah. I checked the other threads and are different from this.


the OAU students need to come out and express their thoughts. This should not continue like this

I hope the relevant authorities (MSSN?? etc) are aware, a strong stand must be made with the school authorities...

deols: wow! the issue is serious then and calls for some seriousness on the part of the Muslim ummah. I checked the other threads and are different from this.
the [size=15pt]OAU[/size] students need to come out and express their thoughts. This should not continue like this

Is that your former school?

fellis:

Is that your former school?

NO

tbaba1234: I hope the relevant authorities (MSSN?? etc) are aware, a strong stand must be made with the school authorities...

I have no doubt that MSS is playing their part. Other Student bodies like the SUG should be involved as well, after all, they are for all students irrespective of their religion.

It is really a sad one,in the school,you have the Muslim community which is mainly composed of the muslim lecturers and the babas,in these case dey do not hold the sunnah firmly unlike the Mssn which is mainly composed of the students.This therefore account for there differences.The muslim community liases easily with d school authorities and dey av been found to compromise on certain issues like the the Niqab.The mssn stand against the move and dey have been always found to support the interests of muslims and Islam in the school.The last time dey arrested a sister givin flimsy excuse dat she is not with d school id card,the muslim students stood up in mass to defend the right of the sister.dat's how it has always been.but the unfortunate part is dat these unfounded activities is also influenced by the muslim community(the baba's) pushed by the school authorities as found out in the recent abuse on the sisters.We just pray to Allah(s.w.t) to guide the muslims and let them be able to stand up for the truth.!It's really sad!!

I still remember vividly my encounter with a former student of the school. I got the shock of my life when I told her I'm a Muslim.
But the last time I visited her she actually showed me a copy of the translated Qur'an she now reads. I'm so full of joy for her right now.

This calls for serious mobilization from muslims in the institution, if this none sense is not nipped in the bud, then a time will come when wearing the hijab could be tamed a security issue! The solution remains that muslims must first exhaust the school internal checks (off course they get nothing from it) and then peaceful protest, to achieve its objectives, muslims need to get the support of other students (not really banking on that though) to send a clear message to the school authority to do what is right! If this fails, the students should utilize the court (the niqab issue shouldn't have been allowed to go unanswered, that is the school should have be sued and forced to bring out its security report that showed wearing niqab is dangerous or a security risk! The only problem remains the slow nature of the courts cases in Nigeria!

My post got hidden?


I have nothing to say

Salam vedaxcool
how's everything?

Wa alaykum salam, everything dey fine! Thanks for asking
And how are u doing?

Hope they don't hide this too!

^I am well, Alhamdullilah