Turkey donates 20,000 copies of Quran to Latin America

The Turkish Diyanet Foundation (TDV) has donated a total of 20,000 copies of the Quran for distribution in Latin American countries, a statement by the foundation said on Wednesday.

In a written statement, the Diyanet Foundation said the copies of the Quran -- to be distributed among Muslims in Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia, Haiti, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Uruguay as part of the campaign "Let my gift be the Quran" -- had a Spanish translation side by side with the original Arabic.

As part of the campaign, launched to meet the need of so many Muslims for the Quran in many parts of the world, more than one million copies of the Holy Scripture have been distributed across the world so far, according to the statement.

"The project continues with support from charitable citizens," the statement emphasized.

İlyas Serenli, the vice president of the TDV Board of Trustees, was quoted in the statement as saying that the campaign had been launched on the reception of a great number of requests from Muslims all over the world.

Serenli said so far eight thousand copies of the Quran had been sent to Guetamala, El Salvador, Colombia, and Haiti, and these copies were now being distributed at Islamic Cultural Centers.

He said that another batch of 12 thousand copies would soon reach Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Uruguay, adding that the Diyanet was now working on a Portuguese translation of the Holy Book with a group of Portuguese-speaking Islamic scholars from Brazil.

"The project serves as a bridge between Muslims."

The Diyanet Foundation has been organizing and promoting projects to translate the Quran to various languages and so far the Holy Book has been translated to 17 languages, among them a number of local ones.