Belmehdi: Developing a special law that regulates the work of the Algerian reading-dialogue committees

The Minister of Religious Affairs and Endowments, Youssef Belmehdi, revealed today, Thursday in Algiers, the work to develop a special law that regulates the work of the reading bodies in Algeria, which includes more than 700 memorizers and memorizers of the Book of God across the various states of the country, which constitutes a real reservoir in the field of Quranic education in Algeria.

And Belmehdi said, during the opening of a scientific symposium and a training day for the benefit of Quran teachers, members of the reading committees and secretaries of the reading councils of the central states, at the Imam’s House in Muhammadiyah, that “more than 700 memorizers and memorizers of the Book of God constitute the membership of the 50 reading committees that Algeria counts.” Provided that 8 bodies are installed in the states that do not include these structures, as work is underway to develop a special law that regulates the work of the reading bodies, in addition to defining their tasks and structures. And he pointed out that “the membership of the existing bodies ranges between 5 and 20 memorizers, with a total of more than 700 members, 30 of whom hold a doctorate, and most of them were able to read the ten readings of the Holy Qur’an.”

The minister spoke about the authorities’ great interest in Quranic education, which he is currently translating through the new restructuring of the ministry, through which a directorate for educational and formative Quranic education of the Book of God was established, and he contributed to the arrival of a significant number of Algerian students to the final rounds and even the crowning of the first ranks in many International competitions to memorize the Holy Quran. He added that “Algeria’s interest in Quranic education has not always been embodied through the establishment of structures designated for this purpose and the development of special educational programs and curricula,” noting, by the way, that “Quranic education in Algeria was never interrupted, even during the period of the French occupation and during the liberation revolution.”