A month of touring with a group of wonderful musicians has ended. The experience has been amazing and definitely memorable. Relationships and lifelong friends has been made. Lessons learnt. Cultural and religious misunderstanding had been improved - slowly but surely.
Personally I realized that Islam among Middle Easterners is very different from the Islam I knew back in Malaysia. Malaysia is slowly taking the extreme approach on the religion and socially moving backwards because of that. In a country where the average temperature is 90 oF, I remember growing up with my Malay friends who were all covered up from head to toe in cotton shirts and pants - even during sports. No wonder these girls always faint.
During the tour, I learnt that most middle-easterners Muslim are really open minded and moderate (Syrians are the most open minded Muslims), unlike what was potrayed back at home. It's amazing how governments use religion as a tool/excuse to win over and control the right of its citizens. It's so easy to manipulate the innocent minds of its citizens - especially people who don't travel out of their countries. Textbooks and audio/visual media were government controlled. I think it's high time Malaysians start to travel and open our eyes to view the world, rather than simply taking in words of 'government', 'scholars' and 'textbooks' within the country.
I also learnt that Mormons are the best represented Christians. I personally made 2 very good Mormon friends who patiently explain many common misconceptions about their beliefs. I also know that our friendship will last a lifetime. Many Asians mistook that Mormons are Amish, that they are not allowed to use technology - no TV, no phones, no electricity. In fact, they do. However, parents selectively allow children to watch TV programs or videos.
Of course, living with 28 other musicians for a month was not a bed of roses, not to mention that we are leaders in our own rights. Each musican had our own view of perfectionism, our own method to make things work and our own perspective of how things should be done. Bringing us together in a group and making us live harmoniously itself is an art. Therefore, I salute the organizers for putting up with what we call the various "musicians' artistic behaviour".
If anything at all, I learnt that LISTENING and to have an OPEN MIND are keys to understanding different cultures and religions. Also, I learnt that we are but ordinary men and women who happen to be born in different locations, which men one day decided to categorize into different colours, "Countries" and "Religions". We are citizens of the world.
This is my favourite song in the tour.
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