Ustazah Idola

When I first stumbled upon an advertisement in Astro on auditions for a new reality TV show dubbed ‘Imam Muda’ about a year ago, I remembered being perplexed and more so furious even before having viewed the show itself. I saw it as a mockery to the religion and the religious institution. The show eventually aired and I was right! To be frank I was as much of a loyal viewer as much as Rosmah is tall. I would nonetheless occasionally catch glimpse of the show, watch it for five minutes and switched to 734. 734 is Discovery Turbo by the way.

Despite people’s contention that the show was a move in the right direction citing big words like da’wah over and over again, I fail to appreciate this. What exactly is the entire point of the show? C’mon, if I wanted religious input I’d benefited more from watching Halaqah or Al-Kuliyyah.

Seriously, I recalled taking sight of one of the episode where these young Imams were attending religious classes, which started with the Ustaz citing bismillah followed by some welcome remarks and … puffhh…  nothing. The rest of it – which was the educational bit, was edited out and next thing you know the Imams were kicking around in the field in what appears to be football match – I really couldn’t tell at first because it seemed more like a group of men stomping on each other’s toes whilst the ball was at the other end of the field. So, in less than five minutes of the show the Imams had gone from attending religious class to stomping each other’s toes. What possibly can the viewers get from this? – Nothing. Where exactly is the da’wah in all that? – You tell me and I’ll give you ten ringgit.

I dare say that the show was littered with drama and more surprisingly slur and badmouthing. Again, c’mon, if I wanted drama, I’d be better of watching Cerekarama and if I wanted slur and badmouthing, I could just run to any government office in Putrajaya and seat in between the two ladies at the front desk where they’ll go at it all day long… Live! 

Anyhow at the end of the show a winner was picked, though till this day I couldn’t thoroughly comprehend what and how exactly the bloke won.

It was than proponed by some that this Imam Muda could serve as an idol to the youths of Malaysia. Fine. But my problem is this; Ali is a youth aligned to religion and through his religious studies has learned that Prophet Muhammad is the idol and best example to all muslims. Ali would probably draw the conclusion that Imam Muda is a joke and that guys who compete in TV just to be crowned Imam are dimwits, hence rendering the Imam Muda redundant to this crowd of youth.  But Abu on the other hand is not so incline towards religion thus never heard of Imam Muda and for that matter ‘Oasis’ and probably thought that ‘Oasis’ is a day spa in Ampang. Abu would therefore idolize Noh Hujan and rightly so especially when Mr. Noh will soon be wedded to the luscious Mizz Nina who incidentally is the daughter to a filthy rich banker. Mr. Noh is set for life! So, in this context our Imam Muda is again redundant, leading to the end question being, an idol to whom?      

Thus to conclude in a paragraph, the show is a bloody waste of time and without anything with the slightest resemblance of benefit to anyone.

Granted, it might not seem sensible of me to get all riled up over a show that ended quite some time ago, which brings me to the point of me writing this entry. I have read in a local daily that the same people behind that waste-of-time Imam Muda have now announced that there are coming up with the female version of the show, ‘Ustazah Idola’ I think. Ohhh the audacity!

If the show does indeed materialize, I say, being the good muslims that we are, spare the show the benefit of the doubt and watch the first five minutes of the opening episode. Make it ten minutes even. But if the show is anywhere as bad as the waste-of-time Imam Muda, pick up your damn remote and switch to 104 to watch re-runs of Akademi Fantasia. You’d probably get more from watching the latter.

No, on second thought if you’re a man switch it back. I mean, where else can you see a group of Ustazah all sweet and lovely smiling, laughing, teasing one another and may be later on do make-up. And… and… if you’re really lucky you might even be treated to see them jump around, up and down playing their rendition of netball. Yes, It’d be like watching the Beauty Pageant with tudung … just don’t drool over your TV screen please. If you don’t watch this than you’re either an idiot or gay or both! If you’re really observant and a die hard fan by than, you’ll also find that the tudung and clothes will shrink a size every week.,, liken to strip tease. Imam Muda eat your hearts out! Now this is a show that’s beneficial.

I can also foresee what would probably become of the overall winner… but let’s just see first whether this “Beauty Pageant” will get aired.