Meor Ridzuan Meor Yahaya wrote:
Second, as far as I know, there are several bodies that do some
verification process (the is a department in one of the ministry in
Malaysia whom a publisher of Quran need to get their approval from).
However, I don't think they will certify electronic data, like the one
mentioned by Greg. They probably will certify the visual
representation of it. So, that is why I was focusing on the visual
aspect of it to be correct, but wihout concerning too much on the
consistency of the actual data. I hope that someone will take this up
and get it certify somehow. If we were to certify the electronic data,
most likely we will have to do it ourselves, but the drawback is we
don't get any certification from anyone. I think it is very important
to get the Quran standardize in the electronic form, since there are
several version of electronic Quran around the net, but none really
comply with Rasm Uthmani. Hope this will be part of the solution.
I think we have an educational task. We need to educate people about
the nature of electronic (digital, computational, whatever) text. Most
importantly, about the relation between the graphical display and the
underlying encoding of text.
[And maybe, as has been noted recently, we should start discussing such
things in Arabic, at least to some extent.]
To get the electronic data to be certify, we have a long way to go.
First, a standard need to be develop, which is far from complete. Greg
just posted a mail on this, so maybe this will get things going in the
right direction. Then maybe we can get the Quran encoded according to
the standard. I think probably we can get it done in 3-5 years time.
Seems like a long time. But, however long it takes!
[A personal note: for what it's worth, and, maybe this isn't important,
but just in case anybody cares, I am not a muslim. I only say this
because I know that there may be some people who may not so happy about
a non-muslim working on Quranic text. That's okay; I respect their
opinion, even if I don't agree with it. I think full disclosure is a
Good Thing. I don't personally think this is very important, but on the
other hand, I know that religious affiliation is culturally very
important in many parts of the world, and, frankly, it seems only
natural to me that muslims in the muslim world might be suspicious of
"well-intentioned" westerners (which is what I am). I know I would be.
I just happen to know Arabic and computation, and I strongly believe
that computational power should be equally available to all peoples,
regardless of nationality, religion, ethnicity, etc. Especially these
days, it is of the utmost importance to everybody that languages of the
muslim world be "properly" (whatever that means) represented
computationally.]
-gregg
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