While other portacabins may be used as restrooms or an office at construction sites, a mobile mosque is often distinguished by minarets and a dome tacked onto the roof.

For many firms, they provide an essential component of corporate social responsibility towards their mostly Pakistani or Bangladeshi labourers who would otherwise have to pray on the dusty floor amid the wreckage of twisted masonry.

Several firms rent or sell portacabins that can be converted into mosques; however the market remains relatively small.

“This year we sold 30-40 mosques,” said Jojan Sebastian, sales manager at the UAE office of international market leaders Portakabin. The company’s total sales of multipurpose portacabins last year were around 6,000, 
said Sebastian.

“They are mostly used at construction sites or in labour accommodation,” he said. “They are cheaper to buy than mosques built of brick and mortar.”

A small portacabin mosque which could cater for 20 people would normally cost Dh18,000, said Sebastian.

A medium size one for 30-40 people would cost Dh28,000, and a large mosque for 90-100 people — around 10m X 10m — would cost Dh65,000-75,000.

“Although most of the orders come from construction companies, we also have a small number of mosques sold to local citizens,” said Sebastian.

“They buy the mosque and give it to small villages far away from the main cities, where there may not be places to pray.”

While the mosque may come withfeet-washing facilities for Muslims to perform ablution, Sebastian said religious leaders were not part of the cost.

“We don’t provide Imams,”  he said. Ali Al Saloom, a cultural advisor, said there were no prohibitions on worshipping in portacabins. 

“Provided it is clean and hasn’t been used for any other purposes before, it is fine,” he said.

“In fact, it should be regarded as a great thing that employers give their workers a place to pray.”

Sightings of portacabin mosques may be rare, but Khaleej Times found three in Tecom, Al Wasl Road and Al Quoz.

One company which has a portacabin mosque outside its premises is Al Masaood Bergum, an Abu Dhabi-owned supplier of prefabricated buildings.

Paul Backwell, rental manager, said only eight of its 180 cabins were converted to be used as mosques.

“These are mostly used for our Muslim staff,” he said.

“Our owners are Muslims and they believe in the importance of providing places to pray for their staff. We don’t sell or hire these out on a big scale for profit.”

Backwell said that the portacabin mosque outside of the company’s offices in Al Quoz was also open to passers-by, if they wished to use it.

Despite the dome and minarets on the roof, the cabin is not dissimilar from any other that the company has in stock. But for the staff who use it, the prefabricated building is sacrosanct.

“Our staff won’t let me enter it,” 
he said.

“Once it has begun to be used as a mosque, they also believe that it can’t be used for anything else.”

martin@khaleejtimes.com