Mosques make ideal community centers, shelters

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Mon, 11/20/2006 12:14 PM | Jakarta

Anissa S. Febrina, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Setting socioeconomic inequalities aside, every subdistrict in Jakarta -- from the elite residential area of Menteng in Central Jakarta to the slums of Penjaringan in North Jakarta -- share something in common.

One might have a five-meter boulevard and another a less than one-meter alley, but they all have mosques, a public facility that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono cited as a potential space for a wide range of constructive social activities.

According to data from the Central Statistics Agency, Jakarta has a total of 2,900 mosques spread throughout its five municipalities, with an addition of 6,050 musholla, a smaller prayer house or area.

The number of mosques almost equals the total number of public and private elementary schools in the city.

Mosque or masjid literally means the house of God, a place of worship.

Nowadays the word has been associated with a public building that accommodates mass prayers.

Just like any other place of worship, the mosque has expanded its function to beyond kneeling before God. In the era of Prophet Muhammad, the mosque was also a community center.

In a Muslim society, it has also becomes a symbol of achievement for the community.

Several large mosques in the city like South Jakarta's Al-Azhar and Central Jakarta's Sunda Kelapa have served as good examples as centers of community development set against a religious backdrop.

Both mosques host youth activities that ranges from religious discussions to charity projects, aside from the regular weekly Koran recital open for public.

""Aside from public discussions, we have a youth club here that provides the space for people to discuss religious as well as current issues,"" Al-Azhar caretaker Yenar said.

The Youth Islamic Study Club, founded back in the 1970s, sees not only students flocking to their events, but also professionals in their late 20s.

Its activities range from weekly Koran lessons to political discussions, from feeding street children and orphans to English courses.

Sunda Kelapa's Riska features more or less the same list of regular events.

Meanwhile, local mosques spread throughout every community in Jakarta host a variety of activities.

If it were not for the typical dome and minaret, people might mistake a mosque in South Jakarta's Cipete for a kindergarten.

Toddlers with colorful mini backpacks wave their friends goodbye as their mothers lead them across the road in front of Al Achyar mosque.

""The school started by accident when my sister's invitation to several neighbors to teach their children was met with enthusiasm,"" said 32-year-old mosque caretaker Mahmudin. ""Our home is too small and we thought why not use the mosque.""

A lot of local mosques serve the same function for their own neighborhood, including the mosque at Depok's bus station, in which a businessman has opened a free school for street children.

Like most local mosques, Al Achyar gradually developed from a humble musholla to a marble mosque that can accommodate up to 500 people.

""My parents gave the land in 1974 as wakaf (donation), built the musholla and slowly upgraded it,"" Mahmudin said.

The kindergarten itself started in the late 1980s.

In the South Cipete sub-district where Mahmudin lives, there are 11 mosques serving five neighborhood units or around 1,500 homes.

With so many around, local mosques could actually be the perfect community information center.

People gather there for weekly Friday prayers and mosque loudspeakers are almost always ready to spread community news.

Unfortunately, district officers seem to take them for granted.

""They only come to us during Ramadhan, passing on a message from the sub-precinct head to tell people not to light firecrackers,"" Mahmudin said.

""Other than that we only use them for azan (call to prayer) or when someone in the neighborhood passes away,"" he added.

In neighborhoods where fire is a regular guest like in Penjaringan, mosques sometimes become an emergency shelter for the victims.

After a 2005 fire in Penjaringan destroyed hundreds of homes, when the number of homeless could no longer be accommodated in the district office, mosques became a temporary shelter.

It seems that with all its potential, the house of God could actually provide so much more than a mere space for people to commune with God.

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