Seven Countries to Take Part in Malaysia Int'l Quran Contest for First Time
Director-General of the Malaysian Islamic
Development Department (JAKIM) Datuk Othman Mustapha said these countries were
Australia, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Belgium, Spain, United Kingdom and Sweden
which will each be represented by a male and female reciter.
Sixty-nine nations will compete in the MTHQA this
year.
"Of the competing nations, 21 have been
invited to participate in tilawah (reciter) while 22 more in hafazan (memorizing)
categories and 26 for the open category and can choose to participate in
either," he said in a press conference on the MTHQA here Monday.
He said in the tilawah category, Malaysia will be
represented by the winners of the 59th National Quran Recital Assembly, Wan
Ainuddin Hilmi Abdullah from Kelantan and Nor Azrah Ayob from Johor.
In the memorizing category, Malaysia will be represented
by winners of the 37th National Quran Memorizing Assembly, Mohamad Omar Mansu
from Selangor and Farihah Zulkifli from Federal Territory.
Othman said the reciters of the assembly, with its
theme of "Unity the Pulse of National Transformation" will be
assessed by 15 professional judges including from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar,
Lebanon, Jordan, Indonesia, Brunei, Thailand and Malaysia.
The Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Abdul Halim
Mu'adzam Shah is scheduled to attend the opening and closing ceremonies.
He said the winners in the recital category will
win gold bars worth RM70,000 from Yayasan Pembangunan Ekonomi Islam Malaysia
(YaPEIM), a trophy and RM40,000 in cash.
In the memorizing category, the winners will take
home gold bars worth RM20,000 from YaPEIM, a trophy, certificate of
participation and cash of RM20,000, he said.
Source: Bernama
