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."



Palestinian Officials Say Israeli Settlers Torched Cars in Ramallah

Palestinians inspect their burnt vehicles at the site where Israeli settlers attacked in Al-Bireh near the West Bank city of Ramallah, 04 November 2024. (EPA)
Palestinians inspect their burnt vehicles at the site where Israeli settlers attacked in Al-Bireh near the West Bank city of Ramallah, 04 November 2024. (EPA)
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Palestinian Officials Say Israeli Settlers Torched Cars in Ramallah

Palestinians inspect their burnt vehicles at the site where Israeli settlers attacked in Al-Bireh near the West Bank city of Ramallah, 04 November 2024. (EPA)
Palestinians inspect their burnt vehicles at the site where Israeli settlers attacked in Al-Bireh near the West Bank city of Ramallah, 04 November 2024. (EPA)

Palestinian officials said Israeli settlers were behind an attack in which several cars were torched overnight just a few kilometers (miles) away from the Palestinian Authority’s headquarters in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

No one was wounded in the attack overnight into Monday in Al-Bireh, a city adjacent to Ramallah, where the Western-backed Palestinian Authority is headquartered. An Associated Press reporter counted 18 burned-out cars.

Settler attacks on Palestinians and their property have surged since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack into Israel.

But attacks in and around Ramallah, home to senior Palestinian officials and international missions, are rare.

The Palestinian Authority, which administers population centers in the territory, condemned the attack. Israeli police, who handle law enforcement matters involving settlers in the West Bank, said they were investigating.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want it to form the main part of their future state. The territory’s 3 million Palestinians live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority exercising limited autonomy over less than half of the territory.

Over 500,000 Jewish settlers with Israeli citizenship live in scores of settlements across the West Bank, which most of the international community considers illegal.