DUSHANBE, May 10, 2013, Asia-Plus  -- A two-day Republican Qur’an Reciting Contest has kicked off in Dushanbe today.

More than 100 reciters under the age of 25 from all regions of the country are participating in the contest that is being held at the Tajik Islamic Institute.

“The competition is organized by the Tajik Islamic Institute in cooperation with the Holy Qur’an Memorization Association (Saudi Arabia) and Islamic scholars from Tajikistan and Saudi Arabia are judging the Republican Qur’an Reciting Contest in Dushanbe,” an official source at the Tajik Islamic Institute told Asia-Plus in an interview.        

We will recall that Dushanbe last year hosted the Qur’an reciting competition among Muslims from the CIS nations.  Forty-two reciters, aged 6 to 25, participated in that contest and Tajik reciters took nine of fifteen prize-wining places.   

Besides, two representatives of Tajikistan were among the top ten winners of the 19th International Qur’an Recitation Contest that took place in Cairo, Egypt in 2011.  More than 100 representatives from Asia, Europe and Africa participated in the 19th edition of Egypt’s International Qur’an Recitation Competition in Cairo.

In 2011, Tajik Qur’an reciters also participated in the 26th International Qur’an Recitation Competition that took place in Tehran.  The best Qur’an reciters aged 18 to 40 from 40 Muslim countries of the world participated in the Qur’an recitation competition in the Islamic Republic of Iran.