East Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (ANTARA News) - East Lombok district`s religious affairs office provided some 3,000 Korans for more than a thousand local mosques last year but the mosques this year need hundreds of thousands of the holy book, a spokesman said.

"A total of 1,184 mosques in 20 sub-districts in East Lombok district currently need hundreds of thousands of Korans" the head of the Islamic Education Section and Mosque affairs of the district Religious Affairs Office H.M.Khairi said here on Monday.

According to him, actually the minor mosques, the Koran teaching primary schools in the district also need a great number of Islam`s holy book so that 3,000 Korans were not enough for the district.

H.M.Khairi also said the funds needed to buy the 3,000 Korans last year came from a number of employees of the East Lombok district Religious affairs office, including teachers.

For 2011 however, the East Lombok district administration did not allocate funds to provide Korans for mosques, minor mosques and Koran teaching institute, he said.

Khairi said further that the organizers of mosques and minor mosques as well as Koran teaching institute often requested a great number of Korans from the Religious Affairs Ministry office, however the request could not be committed due the limited funding allocation.

"Thus, we request the East Lombok people to help contribute the Korans for mosques, minor mosques, including the Quranic teaching institute in a bid to increase our knowledge about the Koran," H.M.Khairi.
(Uu.B003/HAJM)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
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