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12-year-old Muslim girl wins Bhagawat Gita competiton

by IBNS 03 Apr 2015, 12:44 am

Mumbai, Apr 3 (IBNS) In a unique event, a 12-year-old Muslim girl has won a competition on understanding the Bhagawad Gita topping 4,500 participants from 195 schools in Mumbai.

Mariam Asif Siddiqui, who studies in the 6th standard has already read the Bible and is attending lectures on Quran.

The competition was organised by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

"My teacher told me that there is a Gita competition. You can take part. I asked my parents and they said that whatever religion is there, you can take part in it," Maryam said.

I really like Gita. There were stories on how Krishna told Arjun how to live, speak to everyone, how to respect everybody. I liked all these things," she said.

"What saddens me is that while all the holy books talk about humanity and the virtue of giving one's life for another human being, many people in our society misunderstand the teachings,"  Maryam said.

Copies of the translated version of Bhagwad Gita were distributed among students by ISKCON days before the competition was held.  Students who participated in this contest were made to answer 100 questions from both the book.

"I have always taught my children not to differentiate between religions. In the end, God is the same and even though my children attend classes to understand the Quran, they have been taught to take equal interest in other books and religions," said Maryam's father Asif Siddiqui.