Iranian Qari, Memorizer Emerge Winners at Croatia Int’l Quran Contest
The competition wrapped up in a ceremony on Saturday night where winners of the two categories, recitation and memorization of the Quran, were announced and awarded.
According to the panel of judges, Hadi Esfidani from Iran bagged the top prize in recitation.
Turkey’s representative came second in this category.
In memorization of the entire Quran, the contender from Libya went home with the top prize. Iran’s Mohammad Khakpoor was the runner-up and the third rank was jointly won by the representatives of Kuwait and Malaysia.
Croatia’s 26th international Quran competition began in the Islamic Center of Zagreb on Thursday.
A total of 70 Quran memorizers and reciters from 46 countries took part in the competition.
Quran experts from Croatia, France, Qatar, Turkey, and Bosnia and Herzegovina were members of the judges panel.
Croatia’s top Islamic body, the Islamic Affairs Department, organizes the contest annually.
Croatia is an Eastern European country with a population of around five million.
Islam is the second-largest faith in Croatia after Christianity. The religion is followed by 1.47% of the country's population according to the 2011 census, compared to 91.06% Christians.
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