Katara Qur'an recitation prize winners announced

Katara - The Cultural Village has announced the winners of the top three places of the Katara Prize for Qur'an Recitation in its seventh edition.The first prize of QR500,000 was won by Yassin Umran from Algeria, the second prize of QR300,000 went to Mohamed Husseini Mahmoor from Malaysia, while the third prize of QR100,000 was awarded to Mohamed Fuji Ridwan from Indonesia.Katara general manager Prof Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim al-Sulaiti crowned the winners in the presence of Mohamed bin Yaqoub al-Ali, assistant director general, General Directorate of Endowments of Awqaf, at the Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs (Awqaf), who represented director general Sheikh Dr Khalid bin Mohamed bin Ghanim al-Thani.Following the crowning ceremony, Prof Dr al-Sulaiti expressed his gratitude to the Ministry of Awqaf, the official sponsor of the competition for its continuous support and media partner Qatar TV for broadcasting the final stages throughout the holy month of Ramadan.Umran, the first prize winner, said he has earlier won local and international competitions in Algeria, Moscow, and Kuwait. He expressed his gratitude to the management of Katara and the jury for their great efforts to ensure the neutrality and transparency of the award.Mahmoor, the second prize winner, attributed his success in Doha to the prayers of his mother. He noted that he studies the rules of Tajweed and recitation at a religious institute in Malaysia.Ridwan, the third prize winner, recalled he had previously participated at international competitions and achieved advanced rankings in Russia and Bahrain, but this was his first participation in the Katara Prize for Qur'an Recitation.The jury, in both its Tajweed and vocal performance aspects, expressed their belief that the seventh edition stood out for the diversity of participants from 64 countries, including 18 Arab countries. In all, there were 1,315 participants, comprising 685 from the Arab countries and 630 from 46 non-Arab countries.The Arab Maghreb countries topped the list of participants with 307 participants, followed by 233 from Egypt, Sudan, and Somalia, 93 from the Levant and Iraq, and 52 from the GCC countries.