After Row Over Circular To Migrant Workers, Singapore Islamic Body's Clarifies

Migrant workers in Singapore are not being discriminated against and can use any prayer space -- be it in mosques or additional spaces in dormitories and housing estates -- for their Hari Raya (Ramzan) prayers this week, an Islamic religious body in the country clarified in a statement on Monday.

The statement from the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis) came a day after an advisory by the Singapore Bangladesh Society (SBS) went viral on social media, according to a report by The Straits Times on Monday.

In the note addressed to migrant Bangladeshi Muslim workers, SBS said that Muis requested that they perform prayers for Aidilfitri (Eid) on April 22 in their respective dormitories.

“This will help to avoid overcrowding and road blockages and ensure the health, and safety of everyone,” the circular read.

The note, signed off by SBS on behalf of Muis, began circulating on Sunday afternoon and drew mostly negative comments online.

One user on Twitter said: “This is absolutely ridiculous. Many of these migrant workers volunteer to carry out work during their precious days off in many of the mosques, as well as making generous donations from their wages.”

Another offered some suggestions: “Can alternative arrangements be made? Transportation to spread (them) out? Funds to cater for additional space at selected locations?”

Muis, in its clarification on Monday, acknowledged the contribution of migrant workers in local mosques and that the workers “have never been segregated”.

The religious body also noted the disappointment and anger in the community at how migrant workers were being restricted to their dorms.

It added that the advisory by SBS did not include the full arrangements that Muis, its partners and the mosques have taken to provide congregants, both local and foreign, with a comfortable and safe prayer experience.

“We have more than tripled the number of prayer spaces in dorms, which the SBS letter was highlighting to the MTWs (Muslim transient workers). We have also introduced over 20 supplementary venues for an additional 10,000 spaces in our housing estates islandwide,” Muis' note said, adding that there were 240,000 prayer spaces in local mosques.

"We regret that the wording of the SBS circular did not provide the full scope of arrangements made for our MTWs and hope that this note clarifies," it said.

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