Tengah to get new mosque, Tampines North mosque to resume construction in 2027

A new mosque will be built in Tengah, while the construction of another mosque in Tampines North, put on hold during the pandemic, will resume in 2027.

The two mosques will support the needs of Singapore's Muslim community as it presses ahead with efforts to grow as a "community of success", said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on March 4.

He made these announcements before joining some 1,000 congregants and guests at Pasir Ris' Masjid Al-Istighfar to break fast on the fourth day of Ramadan. It was his first time attending such an event in a mosque as prime minister.

PM Wong told his audience that the Government is strictly secular in its approach and is even-handed in its treatment of all faiths.

"We have to be, because Singapore has to be a country for all Singaporeans regardless of their beliefs," he said.

But faith empowers people with strength and purpose, and can be a positive force for society, PM Wong noted.

This is why development planning in different estates accounts for religious needs, including for places of worship like mosques, he said.

"We may have different faiths in Singapore, but here we live harmoniously together - we learn to give and take, we celebrate each other's festivals and traditions," he added. "This is something truly rare and precious, which we must cherish and protect always."

As the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis) is still working with relevant agencies to identify a suitable site for the Tengah mosque, the mosque's location and development timeline will be shared at a later date, Muis said.

It added that planning and building for the Tampines North mosque is resuming as the Covid-19 situation has stabilised, and the number of Muslims living and working nearby has grown. The construction of the new mosque was first announced in 2015.

In 2016, then Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Yaacob Ibrahim said the mosque would be built in Tampines Avenue 10. But Muis said on March 4 that it will be located in Tampines North Drive 5 instead, owing to recent changes to the streets in the area.

In the vicinity of Tampines North Drive 5 are a series of public housing flats that were completed in 2019, and several industrial developments, a number of which are still being built.

All working Muslims in Singapore, including foreign workers and permanent residents, contribute to a mosque building fund. The fund was established in 1975 so that a mosque could be built in every new town.

Since 2009, the fund - which was expanded into the Mosque Building and Mendaki Fund in 1984 - has also been used to renovate existing mosques, increase prayer spaces and provide barrier-free access.

Today, 26 of the 70 mosques administered by Muis have been built from scratch through the fund. A total of 24 mosques have since been upgraded with partial funding from the fund, under the Mosque Upgrading Programme (MUP).

When the Tampines North project was paused in 2021, Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Masagos Zulkifli said the building of new mosques would be deferred, as Muis wanted to prioritise the upgrading of existing mosques.

The decision was made after Muis reviewed the MUP to ensure greater prudence in spending community funds, as it expected that recovery from the Covid-19 crisis would take some time.

Plans to build new mosques would be reviewed when the economy recovered, Mr Masagos said then.

Speaking to reporters on March 4, Mr Masagos said that planning for the Tampines North mosque had not resumed until now as the construction industry remained under great pressure after Covid-19.

With costs escalating, the Government had to prioritise the roll-out of many buildings, with some postponed, he added.

"We are very happy now that, with coordination with the Government, the Prime Minister has agreed that we should now proceed with the building of the mosque in Tampines North," said Mr Masagos, who is also an MP for Tampines GRC.

Mr Masagos said the new Tampines North mosque will ease the load of Darul Ghufran, which is currently the only mosque in Tampines.

Located next to Our Tampines Hub, Darul Ghufran can accommodate up to 5,500 worshippers, making it Singapore's biggest mosque. But it already has to conduct two to three sessions during Friday prayers and Hari Raya prayers, Mr Masagos noted.

"It is quite impossible to continue in that mode, because the numbers are just increasing," he added.

Noting that Tampines is among estates with the highest percentage of Malay-Muslims, he said new flats popping up in Tampines North, and soon in the south of Tampines, would mean that the area needs more mosques than one.

With the Tampines North addition, there would be 19 mosques in eastern Singapore, 20 in the central area, and 16 in the north. The new Tengah mosque would bump up the number of mosques in western Singapore to 17.

Acknowledging the role that mosques play in Singapore, PM Wong said they serve the socio-religious needs of the Muslim community, teach good character and values, and contribute to the wider society.

The two new mosques will help Muis with its plans to build a more cohesive, connected and impactful mosque sector, he said.

PM Wong expressed his hope that Singaporeans will, as they practise their faiths, do their part to strengthen multiracial and multi-religious harmony "as one cohesive and united people".

"This is the spirit that will enable us to go far, especially this year as we mark SG60. This is how we will build a better future together for the next 60 years and beyond," he said, referring to Singapore's diamond jubilee. "And this is how we can make this Singapore miracle continue to endure for many more generations to come."