REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAMBI - Vice Minister of Religion Nasaruddin Umar stated on Wednesday that Indonesia could be the center of Islamic civilization, as every Islamic boarding school, or locally called pondok pesantren, had been implementing Islamic ideas in every aspect of life. 

Islamic boarding schools have been actively organizing various programs to improve their knowledge. One such program is Musabaqah Qira'atul Kutub (MQK), which is periodically held in collaboration with the Ministry of Religion.

MQK is held to measure the quality of teaching in boarding schools, and to know the students' understanding on some traditional books written by the older Islamic scholars.

The books, called "Kitab Kuning" or the Yellow Book, consist of religious lessons, including fiqh or Islamic jurisprudence, Islamic faith, morals and sufism, Arabic grammar, hadith or a report of the teachings, deeds and sayings of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, tafsir or the exegesis or interpretation of the Qur'an, and Islamic social sciences and practices, which is so-called mu'amalah.

MQK 2014, which is the fifth such event, is being held in Jambi on September1-9. The event will encourage Islamic study. A total of 1,564 Islam students from 33 provinces have participated in the event.

"No wonder someday Indonesia will be the center of Islamic civilization," Nasaruddin remarked.

He explained that long ago many Indonesian Islam students had travelled abroad to study Islamic knowledge, such as sociology and anthropology. Today, many foreign students, especially from the Middle East countries, come to Indonesia to study Islam. This indicates that Indonesia has great potential to be the Islam study center.

"This is not just an obsession," the Vice Minister said.

The biennial MQK event was first held in 2004.

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