Algeria Inaugurates World’s Third-Biggest Mosque

The interior of the Great Mosque of Algiers, also known as Djamaa el-Djazair, on the eve of its inauguration in the Algerian capital
The interior of the Great Mosque of Algiers, also known as Djamaa el-Djazair, on the eve of its inauguration in the Algerian capital
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Algeria Inaugurates World’s Third-Biggest Mosque

The interior of the Great Mosque of Algiers, also known as Djamaa el-Djazair, on the eve of its inauguration in the Algerian capital
The interior of the Great Mosque of Algiers, also known as Djamaa el-Djazair, on the eve of its inauguration in the Algerian capital

Algeria's Grand Mosque, the world's third-biggest and Africa's largest, will host its first public prayers on Wednesday, a year and a half after construction was completed.

Known locally as the Djamaa el-Djazair, the modernist structure extends across 27.75 hectares.

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune had been expected to inaugurate the mosque's prayer hall -- whose maximum capacity is 120,000 -- at the event on Wednesday, the eve of the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed, AFP reported.

But his presence was in doubt after his office announced the day before that he had been hospitalized.

Tebboune had gone into self-isolation last week following suspected coronavirus cases among his aides, but the presidency said Tuesday that Tebboune's "state of health does not raise any concern."

It was unclear how many people would be allowed to attend the prayers amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The mosque's interior, in Andalusian style, is decorated in wood, marble and alabaster.

It features six kilometers of Koranic text in Arabic calligraphy, along with turquoise prayer mats.

The mosque aims to be an important theological, cultural and research center, and the complex includes a library that can host a million books.

Featuring geometric architecture, it also boasts the world's tallest minaret -- 267 meters -- fitted with elevators and a viewing platform that looks out over the capital and the Bay of Algiers.

The tallest such structure had previously been a 210-meter minaret in the Moroccan city of Casablanca.

But it has all come at a cost of over $1 billion in public money, according to finance ministry figures.

The seven-year construction work was completed in April 2019, three years behind schedule, and the company in charge, China State Construction Engineering (CSCEC), brought in laborers from China.

"There is a mosque in almost every neighborhood," said Said Benmehdi, an Algiers resident in his seventies, whose two children are both unemployed.

He told AFP bitterly that he would have preferred for the "state to build factories and let young people work.”

Sociologist Belakhdar Mezouar said the mosque "was not built for the people."

It is the "work of a man (Abdelaziz Bouteflika) who wanted to compete with neighboring Morocco, make his name eternal and put this construction on his CV, so he could get into paradise on judgement day," he said, adding that his opinion was widely shared.

Nadir Djermoune, who teaches town planning, criticized the "ostentatious choice" of such mega projects at a time when he said Algeria needed new health, education, sporting and recreational facilities.

The mosque is "isolated from the real needs of the city in terms of infrastructure,” he said.

The most positive point, he said, was its modernist concept, which "will serve as a model for future architectural projects."



EU Urges Immediate Halt to Israel-Hezbollah War

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, left, meets with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, right, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, left, meets with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, right, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)
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EU Urges Immediate Halt to Israel-Hezbollah War

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, left, meets with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, right, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, left, meets with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, right, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)

Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell called for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war while on a visit to Lebanon on Sunday, as the group claimed attacks deep into Israel.  

The Israeli military said Iran-backed Hezbollah fired around 160 projectiles into Israel during the day. Some of them were intercepted but others caused damage to houses in central Israel, according to AFP images.  

A day after the health ministry said Israeli strikes on Beirut and across Lebanon killed 84 people, state media reported two strikes on Sunday on the capital's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Israel's military said it had attacked "headquarters" of the group "hidden within civilian structures" in south Beirut.

War between Israel and Hezbollah escalated in late September, nearly a year after the group began launching strikes in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas following that group's October 7 attack on Israel.

The conflict has killed at least 3,754 people in Lebanon since October 2023, according to the health ministry, most of them since September.  

On the Israeli side, authorities say at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians have been killed.  

Earlier this week, US special envoy Amos Hochstein said in Lebanon that a truce deal was "within our grasp" and then headed to Israel for talks with officials there.  

In the Lebanese capital, Borrell held talks with parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, who has led mediation efforts on behalf of ally Hezbollah.

"We see only one possible way ahead: an immediate ceasefire and the full implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701," Borrell said.  

"Lebanon is on the brink of collapse", he warned.  

Under Resolution 1701, which ended the last Hezbollah-Israel war of 2006, Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only armed forces present in the southern border area.  

The resolution also called for Israel to withdraw troops from Lebanon, and reiterated earlier calls for "disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon."