Triggering Cultural And Spiritual Sentiments Bomb.

Just the other day I was involved in this Graduation Day Ceremony for the learning institution that I worked with which is a famous institution around the globe with students that come from various interesting backgrounds, fascinating cultures and beliefs. It was really nice to see people coming from all around Malaysia especially the proud parents that come to see their children in the moment that they’ll never forget for the rest of their lives for every split second.

So we have speeches from the ‘most’ to the ‘less’ important peoples, flowers and the never ending smiles are everywhere, traffic and parking mania, foods and drinks, human from every generation gap and gender, proud parents and children, graduates lining up to pick up the valuable scrolls especially, camera flashes, soothing music and not to forget the unforgettable and astonishing performances by the chosen group of people in between or during the prestigious ceremony.

Well, I remembered there was a choir from a group of students and another group with this “kompang” sounds. Well, it doesn’t stop there of course, as I mentioned earlier, the most ‘astonishing’ performances would be the ‘nasyid’ from a mix group of proud male students and lecturers. This performance to me and maybe to other people was really fresh maybe because it was never done before especially in this learning institution according to my seniors. The ‘nasyid’ maybe started in between the ceremony while everyone is taking their breaks. Well, as we know ‘nasyid’ are songs that are strongly related to Islamic that urge people to be good and always remember their God. I never studied in UIA and this is my first time seeing such performance and I never thought it can be/ should be done for this type of learning institution Graduation Day other than UIA itself or other Islamic International Colleges around the country.

One thing that we should remember, this is not the Graduation Ceremony for some kind of neither Islamic learning institutions nor other religious institutions. There are people out there who are completely not Muslim and they could present the majority of the hall. Well, I am a Muslim and I don’t think such performance should exist in that manner because it is definitely in the wrong time and especially place. So the performance started nicely. To me and could be to most people, one song can be “Oh, this is different, nice”. Two songs would be “Oh, maybe this is the ending/ last performance”. Three songs will be “Hmm, am I missing something here?”. And when it comes to 8, yes I mean EIGHT same freaking songs it’s going to be sure “OMG! Are they out of their freaking minds? This is it, I am getting out of here people!”

There is no doubt that the ‘nasyid’ is no longer become an entertainment/ performance but more to a religious statement or a group of statements by a bunch of arrogant or ‘riak’ people that can trigger cultural and spiritual sentiments bomb if not controlled by someone that is alert to this kind of issues. As a Muslim, I do feel ashamed due to this act because it doesn’t really shows who we are and it was like grabbing anybody’s’ hand in the street and asking them to convert to Islam. Some may have noticed and some may have not and for those who do realized the truth, believe me they will not erase this for the rest of their memory. In my honest opinion, such illogical show shall not be continued in the next event for the sake of everyone. Just leave the typical Graduation Ceremony with its typical happy and enjoying memories, by then people can only live in peace and harmony. Well, it is a good thing to have such awakening show but try not to push it a little bit too hard than what other people do in the next time, if there's any.