By Nur Haninah
GOMBAK, 10 August 2017: IIUM team has been crowned as champion for the third time at the International Arabic Debate Open Championship 2017 (IADOC) after beating Islamic University of Indonesia (UII) in the final competition held at IIUM’s Main Auditorium. last Sunday (6 August).
Debating the motion, œMigration of the brilliant minds from third world countries is an obstacle to development projects, the IIUMs team consisted of Arabic Language and Literature (BARB) students Nur Fadhilah bt Waji, Mohamad Ikmal Hakimi bin Mohammad Helmi and Muhammad Nazri bin Rostam.
When asked about the inspiration to join the Arabic debate competition, Muhammad Nazri shared his happiness saying, œWitnessing our seniors success from debate competition had motivated us to gain the same achievement.
Meanwhile, the UII team which was the runner-up, told IIUMToday that they had never expected to reach the grand finale because they did not even make it to quarter round in IADOC competition last year. However, they were proud to be able to represent their country, Indonesia.
The Indonesian team is made up of Saiful Aziz, Auzia Hilmy Muhammad and Hamdan Arief Hanif who came from two different background of study.
Saiful Aziz told IIUMToday that the debate had taught them to think critically and to view certain issues from different angles. “That will be beneficial for them in the future,” he said.
Muhammad Nazri also expressed his opinion on students taking Arabic language. He said: œYou may not see the benefit of learning this language now but you will in the future. So, try to learn the language seriously although it is hard to master, and shouldn’t just study for the sake of passing the grade.
Among the 10 other universities that participated in this debate championship are Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Singapores Madrasah AlJunied Al-Islamiah.
The IADOC 2017 was organised by the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) in collaboration with Arabic Media Group (AMG) and Institut Terjemahan dan Buku Malaysia (ITBM).***