New Mosque Construction Highlights Growing Presence of Islam in France

This is the culmination of a long journey. In France, the installation of the first mosque dates back to 1916. "A mosque was installed there in 1916 and operated for the following three years, under the authority of Muslim army chaplains. It is located at the hospital, dedicated to the wounded of the War, open since 1914 within the enclosure of the colonial garden" of Nogent-sur-Marne, on the eastern edge of the Bois de Vincennes," historian and Arabist Jean-Pierre Filiu tells Anadolu.

"The project of the Grand Mosque of Paris was launched by the French government, in derogation of the law on the separation of Churches and State, to pay tribute to the tens of thousands of Muslim soldiers who fell during the First World War. It is Marshal Lyautey, Minister of War in 1916-17, who lays the first stone in 1922. The Grand Mosque of Paris is inaugurated, four years later, in the presence of the President of the Republic, Gaston Doumergue, and the Sultan of Morocco, Moulay Youssef," he continues.

Other mosques have emerged and are now part of the French landscape. The Turkish community in France has invested in the construction of "real" mosques, religious associations. According to figures from the Grand Mosque of Paris and the Ministry of the Interior, there are around 2,400 to 2,500 places of worship (large mosques, prayer rooms) in metropolitan France, of which less than a hundred measure more than 1,000 m² and only about thirty are topped with a minaret. Due to the ever-increasing number of worshippers, other places of worship have been built. "The faithful prayed at the Fatih mosque made available at the time by Mayor Pierre Pflimlin," but "the place was no longer enough and street prayers were inevitable," explains Eyup Sahin, president of the Islamic Confederation of Milli Görüş Grand Est Region (CIMG) to the Anadolu Agency. This situation had prompted the faithful to organize a street prayer in front of the Town Hall in 1992.

This action paid off. "It was then the mayor of the time, Ms. Catherine Trautmann, who authorized in 1996 the acquisition of a hangar in the Meinau district," he explains further. The hangar will be demolished after serving as a place of worship for 20 years. A new mosque project will see the light of day. It is the construction of the largest in Europe after that of Cologne. "As the new building was no longer enough, we needed to build this new mosque," notes the president of the Eyyub Sultan mosque, Eyup Sahin. With a total cost of around "32 million euros, this new building should be able to accommodate around 2,000 people and can go up to 5,000 in case of use of the outdoor courtyard," he specifies.