Mordovia Republic is located in the middle of the Russian Federation

By Riyadh  Ahmed, IOL Correspondent 

SARANSK, Mordovia, January 29 (IslamOnline.net) – The religious administration of Mordovia, one of the Russian Federation republics, has organized a Holy Qur’an competition, the first ever in its history, emphasizing that it will keep holding such a contest in the forthcoming years to encourage Muslims of different age brackets to learn Qur’an by heart.

“The religious administration has organized along the last four days the first Qur’an competition in its history,” Mordovian Mufti Sheikh Rashid Halikov told IslamOnline.net, pointing out that the contest was concluded on Tuesday, January 27 in Saransk, capital of Mondovia, where awards were being granted.

Halikov pointed out that the number of competitors amounted to 60 men and women of different ages and that the competition comprised two levels; the first is to learn the whole Holy Qur’an by heart and the second is to learn by heart 20 chapters only.

Twenty competitors out of the 60 who applied for the preliminary round, organized on January 25 and 26, 2004, were qualified to the final round of the competition, he added.

Abdel-Rahman Saber El-Din, 25, won the first position in learning the whole Holy Qur’an by heart, while Othman Habibullah, 12, took the first position in learning 20 chapters of the Holy Qur’an by heart.

Winners of the competition have been chosen according to the criteria of good learning and proper recitation, Halikov said, adding that winners were awarded personal computers, cassette recorders and versions of the Holy Qur’an.

The Mordovian Mufti promised that the religious administration would continue to organize such competitions during the forthcoming years in order to encourage Muslims, who represent a minority, to learn the Holy Qur’an by heart.

Mordovia Republic is located in the middle of the Russian Federation. Its population amounts to one million inhabitants; 100.000 of whom are Muslims and belong to Tartar origins.

There are currently 41 mosques in Mordovia, as the 1990s witnessed an increase in the numbers of mosques following the destruction of large numbers of them during the era of the Former Soviet Union.