MoU Signed in Mashhad on Hosting 6th Int’l Quran Contest for Muslim Students
It was signed in a meeting of the competition’s policy-making council at the office of Khorasan Razavi province’s governor general.
Attending the session were Hamid Reza Tayyebi, head of the Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR), Hojat-ol-Islam Hamid Mohammadi, secretary of Iran’s Council for Development of Quranic Culture, Saeed Pourali, ACECR’s cultural deputy, Hamid Saber Farzam, head of the Iranian Academics Quranic Activities Organization (IAQAO) and managing Director of the International Quran News Agency (IQNA), and Ali Reza Rashidian, governor general of Khorasan Razavi province, among others.
Addressing the session, Tayyebi described the international Quranic event for students as significant, especially given the current sensitive situation in the Muslim world.
Now that the Muslim world is facing the challenges posed by Takfiri groups, the Quran contest for Muslim students will be a venue for promoting the Quran among the elite.
He added that presence of students from different countries in the competition also provides an opportunity for enhancing unity among Muslims worldwide.
Hojat-ol-Islam Mohammadi also hailed the competition as a unique event attended by Muslim world elites lauded the ACECR for organizing the contest.
Another speaker at the session was Saber Farzam who said the IAQAO, as a Quranic center hailing from a revolutionary institution (ACECR), has been the pioneer of promoting Quranic activities in Iranian universities.
He briefed the participants on the history of the International Quran Competition for Muslim Students, saying the IAQAO organized the first edition in 2006 and has since been holding it biannually with the aim of promoting unity and cooperation among Muslim world students and elevating the level of Quranic activities.
Rashidian, meanwhile, underscored the need for making all-out efforts to spread the teachings and concepts of the Quran.
He also described Mashhad, where there is the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS), as the best place for hosting Quranic activities and said the secretariat of the International Quran Competition for Muslim Students should move to the holy city given its great Quranic potentials.
Seyyed Saeed Sarabi, director general of Khorasan Razavi province’s Culture and Islamic Guidance Department, also addressed the meeting, saying that hosting the Quranic competition will be parts of the programs related to Mashhad, Asia’s Cultural Capital of the Islamic World in 2017.
The 6th edition of the International Quran Competition for Muslim Students is slated to be held in Mashhad in January 2017.
