Nakheel Mosque opens in sprawling Discovery Gardens area

Dubai: Worshippers have welcomed the opening of a long-awaited mosque in Dubai’s Discovery Gardens community where there are 18,000 homes.

Nakheel Mosque is located between Mediterranean and Contemporary Clusters there and accommodates more than 700 worshippers.

It is the only other mosque in Discovery Gardens where worshippers have complained of limited space for group prayers.

Developer Nakheel on Wednesday said two more mosques are planned for the sprawling community – spread over 26 million square feet – but gave no further details.

It had told Gulf News in December 2012 that the new mosque was expected to open in a few weeks.

Wednesday’s announcement said the mosque’s opening “underlines Nakheel’s commitment to continue to provide new or enhanced facilities and services in its residential communities”.

Residents had earlier complained of overcrowding and parking problems at two existing mosques near Street 2 – one of the mosques falls within the adjacent community of The Gardens.

The older mosques are overflowing, suffering double parking and traffic jams during peak prayer times on Fridays and during the month of Ramadan, worshippers had said.

Residents near Nakheel Mosque said they had to walk or drive a few kilometres to the existing mosques, adding they would like to see more mosques to accommodate demand in other areas.

Nakheel Mosque appeared to be virtually ready for an extended period of time but remained closed, residents said. It was not immediately clear what had caused the ‘delay’.

Meanwhile, the Discovery Gardens Community Centre – already fully leased to more than 20 retailers and restaurants – is due to open in early 2014, Nakheel said.