KUALA LUMPUR – Finance Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced that RM20 million will be provided to Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP), Malaysian Institute of Translation and Books (ITBM) as well as Yayasan Karyawan to promote works of local writers.
“Cultural empowerment begins with the culture of iqra' to foster an interest in reading classical works from the Islamic world and the West,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat.
He added that the government supports efforts to enrich and translate masterpieces of Malay literature, citing the works of Imam Al-Ghazali, the initiator of Maqasid Syariah, Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi, Sheikh Daud Abdullah al-Fatani, Nuruddin Ali ar-Raniri, as well as thinker, writer, and philosopher Muhammad Iqbal.
The allocation of RM20 million will be used to intensify translation activities of these classical texts for popular and mainstream consumption. High-quality publishing activities by local writers will also be increased.
He added that the government will be printing as many as one million copies of the Al-Quran in response to the burning of the holy text in Sweden recently.
For this purpose, RM10 million will be donated to the Restu Foundation for the immediate distribution of 20,000 copies of Quran in Swedish and other international languages. – The Vibes, February 24, 2023
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