West Java Government Prioritises Building Small Mosques to Foster Community Spirituality

The West Java Provincial Government will prioritise the construction of ‘tajuk’, or small mosques, in local neighbourhoods as a means of fostering community spirituality at all times. This was stated by West Java Governor Dedi Mulyadi during the Muharram 1448 Hijriyah Islamic New Year commemoration at the Al-Jabbar Grand Mosque, Bandung, on Tuesday (9/6/2026). “We want to build small mosques in communities that need them at any time. After all, there are already many grand mosques in West Java,” said KDM, as Dedi Mulyadi is known. According to KDM, the development will be carried out gradually and in an integrated manner with assistance from all parties, so that existing small mosques will not need to form new mosque welfare councils (DKM). “We want to build mosques that have congregations, where children can learn the Qur’an, and where people can worship,” said the man synonymous with the white traditional headband. He observed a current shift in the use of mosques, from places for contemplation, prostration, and building a spiritual relationship between humans as creatures and God, into recreational facilities. “If a mosque becomes a recreational facility rather than a spiritual one, it will only become a place for selfies, not for contemplation,” KDM said. KDM stated that the essence of worship lies in a person’s relationship with God, not in the grandeur of the place visited. “Contemplation can be done anywhere. In the bedroom, a small prayer room, under a tree, at the edge of a rice field, by a lake, on a mountainside, or at the ocean’s edge. The place has no meaning; the most important thing is the silence of the soul to be able to present God in the depths of the heart,” he said.