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SINGAPORE: Singapore's Minister in Charge of Muslim Affairs, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, said there has been a steady decline in the number of marriages involving minors in the community.
Giving an update on the state of the Malay Muslim community here, Dr Yaacob said the number of solemnizations involving minors dropped by 18 per cent to 295 last year. This is a sharp drop of 45 per cent since 2005.
Divorces involving persons who had been minors at the point of marriage have also fallen by four per cent to 433 in 2009.
Dr Yaacob attributed the good progress to the various efforts undertaken by the community.
These include marriage preparatory courses and an amendment to the Administration of Muslim Law Act (AMLA) to raise the legal age of marriage for Muslim couples from 16 to 18 years of age. From 1 March 2009, anyone who is below 18 years of age and wants to get married is required to obtain a Special Marriage License (SML).
Separately, Dr Yaacob also announced that two new mosques will be built in Woodlands and Jurong West to meet the high demand for prayer space in the area.
He said: "MCYS, together with MND, URA and MUIS, have studied the issue. Based on our assessment, there is particularly high demand for prayer space in Jurong West and Woodlands because they are large towns with a significant Muslim population.
"In addition, the mosques in these areas also serve Muslim workers from the nearby industrial estates at Tuas and Woodlands, as well as students from the nearby tertiary institutions such as Nanyang Technological University and Republic Polytechnic, during Friday prayers.
"Unfortunately, there are no other mosques nearby which are able to cope with the spill-over demand. Even after upgrading the existing mosques to increase capacity, there would still be a shortage of space.
"Therefore, I am pleased to announce that the government has decided to reserve land for MUIS to build two additional mosques in Woodlands and Jurong West."
Dr Yaacob added: "The community continues to progress in many facets - be it education, skills or the many indicators of quality of life. We benefit from the Singapore system and complement with community self-help. However, there are pressing issues at the bottom. These will require continued focus and results will take time to show up."
- CNA/sc
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