Cairo: More than 219 people listened this year to a sermon delivered on the Day of Arafat, which marked the climax of the annual Islamic Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, according to Saudi figures.
The sermon on Friday was broadcast in 14 languages via a platform set up by the General Presidency for Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques as part of advanced and expanded services provided by Saudi Arabia.
Indonesians topped the list of worldwide listeners to the sermon with 68 million, followed by 38 million from Pakistan, 32 million from India, 22 million from Bangladesh, 19 million from Egypt and 12 million from China, the figures have shown.
Around 99 per cent listened to the sermon via the computer while the remaining 1 per cent used the cellphone.
In terms of languages, 29 per cent of the listeners used translation for Malay; 18 per cent for English; 13 per cent for Urdu; 11 per cent for Hausa; 9 per cent for Bengali; 4 per cent for French; 3 per cent for Turkish; 2.3 per cent for Tamil, two per cent for each of Chinese; Hindi, Russian and Persian; 1.5 per cent for Kiswahili; and 1.2 per cent for Spanish.
Earlier this month, the General Presidency for Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques announced increasing the number of languages into which the Arafat sermon is translated from 10 to 14 targeting 200 million people across the world.
