Muhyiddin said the government gave serious attention to Quranic education, not only on tahfiz (memorisation) but also tafsir (interpretation), ulum (science of) and al-Qiraat (recitation) of the Quran.
But it remains unclear why the soldiers decided to burn copies of the Quran a particularly incendiary affront to Muslims who view the book as the sacred word of God as relayed to the Prophet Muhammad.
It was Arabs with oil money, and with the prestige that comes with their mastery of Arabic, the language of the Quran, among impressionable Pakistanis and Afghans who had made Afghanistan the menace it had become.