KUWAIT CITY, Nov 5: The Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs has informed the Acting Director of Kuwait Municipality Saud Al-Dabbous about ministerial resolutions No. 240 and 267 regarding mosques, housing, and family housing for imams and muezzins. This comes as part of the efforts of Kuwait Municipality, as the executive body of the Municipal Council, to coordinate and cooperate with the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs to control the mechanism for allocating lands to mosques, and their compliance with the conditions included in the building regulations for private and investment housing areas and organizing their parking lots.

According to the statement issued by the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs to the municipality, the conditions that must be taken into account when considering the requests for allocating mosques include the following:

1. The distance from the nearest existing mosque in residential areas should not be less than 350 meters.
2. The distance from the nearest existing mosque in investment housing areas and service, craft, commercial, and industrial areas shall not be less than 250 meters when requested to be allocated in the same plot.
3. The distance from the nearest existing mosque should not be less than 10 kilometers for mosques required to be allocated or established on highways.
4. The distance from the nearest existing mosque should not be less than 1,500 meters in areas of chalets and agricultural holdings.
5. Approval of neighbors is required to allocate new mosques in residential areas in the event that there are neighbors adjacent to the mosque, in accordance with the regulations in force in the municipality.
6. Car parking and family housing for the imam and muezzin of the new mosques in the chalet areas must be provided, after obtaining the approval of the Ministry of Finance’s State Property Department.
7. If it is provided in agricultural areas and the site to be allocated is within an agricultural holding, the area required to be allocated to the mosque, parking lots, and family housing for the imam and the muezzin will be deducted from that holding, provided that the Public Authority for Agricultural Affairs and Fish Resources (PAAAFR) approves it. The statement specified the controls for allocating family housing to imams and muezzins, the most prominent of which is that the area of the plot for family housing should not be less than 250 square meters. The building may consist of two or more floors, but each floor must constitute one unit or separate units.

The design is subject to building conditions and regulations in accordance with applicable standards in the municipality according to three conditions:-

1. Allowing a license to establish family housing within the boundaries of the existing mosque if its area allows for this, in accordance with the technical requirements contained in the regulations of the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs and the building regulations in force in the municipality.
2. Allowing the construction of family housing adjacent to the wall of the existing mosque or close to it, in accordance with the technical requirements contained in the bylaw and the applicable building regulations, provided that the neighboring neighbors approve the mosque in residential areas only.
3. In all cases, it must be taken into account not to disturb the architectural character and aesthetic form of the mosque when designing family housing for the imam and the muezzin. One of the articles contained in the municipality’s statement also stressed the need for the proposed location to construct mosques, family housing for the imam and muezzin, and parking lots to be compatible with the building regulations, conditions, and regulatory and planning standards in force in the municipality.

Article 7 referred to the statement sent by the ministry to the municipality to form a committee based on the decision of the undersecretary of the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs. It will be headed by the assistant undersecretary for Mosque Sector Affairs, and its members must include the deputy director general responsible for the organization in the municipality, a vice president, and a number of members from the municipality.

The committee will be tasked with examining the extent to which the requests submitted by the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs to allocate sites for mosques and family housing for imams and muezzins are compatible with the actual need to establish them in the areas where they are required to be established, and the extent to which the requests are compatible with the conditions contained in the ministerial decision for endowments. It must also grant initial approval of the application and submit it to the municipality to consider the possibility of allocating the site.

By Enas Awad

Al-Seyassah/ Arab Times Staff