Cairo: Saudi Arabia had organised the longest Iftar fast-ending banquet in the history of Indonesia in West Sumatra, the Saudi news agency SPA has reported.
More than 8,000 people from different categories of Indonesian society had attended the iftar, which stretched for 1,200 metres, SPA added, citing official Indonesian figures.
The event was hosted by the Saudi Ministry of Social Affairs represented by the kingdom’s religious attaché office in Jakarta as part of a programme to provide Iftar meals for fasting Muslims in Indonesia in Ramadan.
SPA quoted the West Sumatra Governor Mahyeldi Ansharullah as saying that the Indonesian government is seeking to register the banquet as the longest in the country’s history in the Guinness World Records.
Nearly 40 restaurants and 400 workers were engaged in organising the event, the Saudi religious attaché Ahmed Al Hazamy said.
Saudi Arabia, Islam’s birthplace, has allocated SR5 million for the programme to provide Iftar meals for Muslims in 40 countries during Ramadan, the kingdom’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs has said.
The ministry has cited another initiative, officially known as the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques’ Gift Programme, for giving away around 500 tonnes of dates in 60 countries.
Under a programme dispatching Muslim clerics abroad during the holy month that started on March 23, the ministry has said it has sent 54 imams to 18 countries in response to requests from those countries.
Saudi religious attache offices and centres affiliated to the ministry overseas have been provided with 1 million copies of the Holy Quran, Saudi media reported.
