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The prayer hall in the “Great Mosque of Algeria” was inaugurated on Wednesday night, on the occasion of the anniversary of the Prophet’s birth, provided that the remaining facilities are open to visitors, after the Corona pandemic is over.
The Algerian Prime Minister, Abdelaziz Jarad, participated with the local government and religious figures, and ambassadors from Islamic countries, in conducting evening prayers at the mosque, in the absence of the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who is in Germany after being infected by the coronavirus.
Construction of the mosque began in 2012, during the era of the resigned Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and was completed a year and a half ago.
The huge religious building extends over an area of more than 27 thousand hectares, making it the largest in Africa and the third largest in the world after the Chinese company that oversees its construction, “China State Construction Engineering”. Prophet’s Mosque and the Great Mosque of Saudi Arabia.
The base of the mosque has a capacity for about 120,000 worshipers, and its minaret is 267 meters high and can be seen from all parts of the Algerian capital, and the minaret consists of 43 floors and can be accessed by elevators.
The interior of the mosque is decorated with panels of Arabic calligraphy made of marble, marble and wood, with Andalusian character. It is furnished with blue floral patterned rugs, with a traditional Algerian character.
The building includes 12 buildings, including a library containing one million books, a conference room, a museum of Islamic art and history, a research center on the history of Algeria, as well as gardens and water fountains.
And supervising the performance of the prayers of five imams and five muezzins, as a member of the Association of Muslim Scholars Kamal Schatt told the “Agence France Presse”.
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Shakat said that the mission of the building will be “to organize and coordinate fatwas with the Algerian reality lived, and that the Algiers Mosque becomes a place to fight against all forms of extremism, religious or secular.”
The inauguration comes on the Prophet’s birthday, amid the ongoing debate in France on Islamic extremism and popular anger in Algeria and other Arab and Islamic countries over the position of French President Emmanuel Macron on the reissue of cartoons. of the Prophet Muhammad in the magazine “Charlie Hebdo”.
Thus, the new mosque appears as a response to the official French positions, especially since it was built in the region of Muhammadiyah, the place that during the colonial period (1830-1962) the French called “Lavigre”, in reference to the archbishop of Algeria, Charles Lavigerie, the leader of the missionary campaigns to impose the Christian religion. About the Algerians.
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Hamad Al-Otaibi, editorial director of the “Sufi Philosophical Library”, says that the mosque “symbolizes the failure of the Christianization project and the steadfastness of the Algerians in their religion.”
Despite its symbolism, the construction of the project generated controversy in Algeria, as its construction took more than seven years, in addition to its cost, which amounted to more than $ 1,500 million, financed by the public treasury.
Supporters of the project believe the controversy over the costs is a French media campaign led by secular parties in Algeria.
The current president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, when he was Bouteflika’s Housing Minister in 2016, said: “A French company is the one that incited some French media against Algeria after it did not take on the project.”
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“France Press” spoke to Saeed Bin Mahdi, father of two unemployed youth, who voiced his complaint about the project, saying that he wanted “the state to build factories and make young people work”, especially since “there is a mosque in almost every the neighborhoods “.
According to a sociology professor, Belkhadr Mezouar, the religious building “was not built for the people”, but Abdelaziz Bouteflika wanted to “compete with the Moroccan neighbor and include it as an achievement on his curriculum.”
The minaret of the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca in Morocco was the tallest in the world (210 meters) until now.
Nader Djarmoun, a university professor specializing in urbanization, explained to “France Press” that the mosque “is located in a bad location because it is isolated from the real needs of the city in terms of infrastructure”, but points out that the modern design of the monument ” it will serve as a model for future architectural projects. “
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