Resumen de Temple and Mosque: A comparative analysis as centers for social assistantships

Kartini Khalid, Rachel Chan Suet Kay

• Societal activities began from a place that connects individuals and families with communities. This study discusses the role and function played by mosque and temple in connecting people with the shared value together, and both sacred places of different religions are sharing similar activities for devotion and assisting society. However, the limit of assistantships differs both religion centers distinctively and making the temple more exclusive to members of the association and the same clan. The mosque management is extending its assistantships to the brotherhood of Muslims regardless of ethnicities and gender. The site’s research was the Chan See Syu Yuen temple, established in 1906 and the mosque, Masjid Jamek Kampung Baru, built-in 1880. Both centers marked historical sites and activities dated back during the British colonial era. As years passed, the temple management was becoming more advanced in terms of managing the welfare benefits for the needy, yet the evolution limits mosque’s function and the control of other forms of assistantships, which were regulated separately by the ministry of religion. Hence, the former has yet to upgrade into a ministerial portfolio, though the efficiency in ensuring clans’ prosperity is productive when compared to mosque and ministry of the Islamic religion. The unstructured interviews with five people, members of the temple, and mosque and observation provide primary data to be analyzed using thematic analysis on services, activities, types of assistantships, and challenges that they experienced to sustain their existence.