Iran’s Representatives to Compete in Croatia Int’l Quran Contest
According to Mehdi Reza, the head of the Iranian Cultural Center in Zagreb, Hadi Movahed Amin will compete in the recitation category while teenage Quran memorizer Reza Nezhad Tabrizi will represent Iran in memorization.
He said Iranian Quran master Ahmad Abolqassemi will also serve as a member of the panel of judges.
Reza noted that the first international Quran competition of Croatia will be held in the Islamic Center of Zagreb in late September.
Quran reciters and memorizers from 45 countries are expected to take part in the Quranic event, he stated.
The competition will be part of the programs held to mark the 100th anniversary of the formal recognition of Islam as a religion in Croatia, Reza noted.
On April 27, 1916, the Croatian-Slovenian province of the then Austro-Hungarian Empire held a parliamentary session in which Islam was recognized as equal to Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy.
Islam was introduced to the region by the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century.
Roman Catholics represent 86 percent of the country’s population, followed by Orthodox Christians at five percent and Muslims at two percent.
Croatia declared its independence during the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991 and was internationally recognized in January 1992.
