Monday 1 May 2006

Grassroots

I was a volunteer at a recent Islamic Youth festival, organized by a foundation called Grassroots, which aimed to provide Muslim youth with a place and a time where they could have activities relevant to today's world and yet still respected the boundaries of religion.

Happening would have been the word for it.

There were all sorts of personalities contributing to the cause, names that I had heard about; from comedians, to rappers, to beatboxers, and they performed messages of faith and positivity. It was a very hip-hop vibe, and I loved it. Loved looking around and seeing the sea of Muslim youths from all over the world, with their different cultures, all coming together and enjoying themselves, without worrying that they were doing something that was prohibited.

Different faces, young and old,
A sea of individual diversity.

Then there were workshops. Dance, rap, beatboxing and breakdancing. I was put to supervise the girls rap, and ended up being dragged into participation. There were these innocent looking girls in their hijabs, and they were writing down rap lyrics with wholehearted enthusiasm. We were divided into groups, and each group worked on a verse and another group worked on the chorus, and at the end we all got together and rapped our song. I felt so far outside my comfort zone that I was flailing, and yet, I put on my best impersonation of what I imagined a rapper would sound like and went for it.

And we all sounded pretty damn good to me.

United by a single belief,
Interweaving beliefs into modernity.

Kudos to the organizers, for making me see that it is possible to provide entertainment for the youth today, fun that everyone can relate to and still respect our religious beliefs.

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