AS the call to the afternoon prayer sounds, 8-year-old Putri hastens towards the Baiturrahmi Mosque in Pasir Ulak Karang, Padang, West Sumatra. Wearing a large white pullover shirt, a long black skirt, and a white headscarf, this second-grader at the Ulak Karang No. 8 State Elementary School joined her friends on Friday of last week to study how to read and write the Arabic of the Quran.

Enthusiasm to read the Quran has swept across the city of P