Koran proficiency tests for legislative candidates in Indonesia

You gotta wonder how Muslims around the world who don't speak the Arabic language  still want to follow the book of the worst cult known to mankind without really understanding one single word from that book.  They depend on their imams to tell them what's inside the book although they know it by rote.  Madness !!

Indonesia takes the parroting one step further.  

Dozens of legislative candidates vying for the 81 seats in the Aceh provincial legislature in the 2014 general election have flunked a Koran proficiency test — one of the requirements under a local bylaw for running for public office.

Akmal Abzal, a commissioner with the Aceh Independent Elections Commission (KIP), said that 42 of 1,231 people from 12 political parties failed the test.

“There were only three political parties whose members all passed the Koran proficiency test 100 percent,” Akmal told the Jakarta Globe on Tuesday.

However, Akmal, who is also the chairman of the test committee, refused to disclose the names of the politicians who failed the test or what political parties they were from, citing ethical reasons.

“One thing is certain: There were legislative candidates from a nationalist Islamic party who couldn’t read the Koran. There were also legislative candidates from a local party,” he said.

The 2014 general election will see 15 parties participate in Aceh, including three local parties — the Aceh Peace Party (PDA), the Aceh National Party (PNA) and the Aceh Party (PA). The rest are national-based parties.

Aceh is the only province in the country allowed to have local parties and the only one that requires the Koran proficiency test for prospective candidates.

Akmal said the test was held for three days from Saturday until Monday.

“There was no intervention in the results from anyone because the team of judges worked independently and professionally. Their decision is unanimous and cannot be challenged,” said Akmal, adding that the judges were all past winners of Koran recital competitions.

Akmal said that the KIP had held a plenary meeting on the legislative candidates who failed the test and that it would soon notify political parties about their candidates who did not make the cut.

“The parties may replace their legislative candidates who failed the Koran proficiency test with other candidates before the deadline,” he said.........