By Nurliyana Ahmad
GOMBAK, 11 December 2019: The Global Ummatic Festival enlivened this year with a dazzling opening ceremony that featured grand performances by local and international students showcasing the diversity of culture, music and dance.
The opening ceremony held on Saturday (8 December) at 8.00 p.m at IIUM Cultural Centre (ICC) marked the beginning of the one-week Global Ummatic Festival 2019 which will end this Thursday (12 December).
All the guests who attended the opening were astonished with the special performances of traditional Malay zapin dance by Nafastari Club, saman dance by Indonesian (Aceh) students and the amazing show by the Saudi Arabia students.
The audiences were entertained with amusing performances by the students that resembled the uniqueness of their culture.
The event was also graced with poems delivered by Malaysian student, Ainul Shuhadah with full emotion to spread the message of œOur People.
IIUM Rector, Professor Emeritus Tan Sri Dato Dzulkifli Abdul Razak was also present to witness the festive ceremony, accompanied by his wife, Puan Sri Datin Masrah Abidin.
Also invited to the event were IIUM Board of Governors, Ambassadors, High Commissioners and Representatives, Deputy Rector (Internationalisation and Global Network) who was also the advisor of Global Ummatic Festival, Prof. Dr. Nor Faridah Abdul Manaf, and the Director of Office of International Affairs, Prof Dr. Amir Akramin Shafiei.
The ceremony began with the flag parade by the international students followed by the opening speech and launching of Global Ummatic Festival 2019 with the release of colourful balloons by the Rector.
œThe Global Ummatic Festival brings forward various cultures, various values and various understanding in IIUM, and this is something you would celebrate together to show as ‘The One Ummah’. We can actually strive to make one Ummah the world over as far as Malaysia and the international community, said Tan Sri Dato Dzulkifli Abdul Razak in his opening remarks.
He further said, œIIUM is a place where we actually want to see how much we can live together in terms of common values as Muslims.
œI would like to celebrate this in terms of the kind of cultures and also the kind of activities that are held together to build understanding, said the Rector.
“This is in line with the theme this year ‘Sharing and Caring for the Ummah’ is basically how we hold together being as one Ummah.”
He ended his speech spreading the good news to the audiences where the university will now be looking again at how to revise the students fee particularly for international students.
The Festivals opening ceremony later ended with the Rector and the guests visiting the country booths to experience for themselves the different culture in the university.
There were over 20 booths decorated in this festival, participated by various countries around the world, where visitors can experience the taste of their food, traditional clothing and the natural feeling of being in their own country.***