The incredible and funny situation of the Great Mosque of Algiers

"This funny situation can only take place in Algeria, the country of miracles" comment ironically the Algerians. Nowhere in the world can we meet such a case. A mosque built against a backdrop of controversy for its exorbitant cost paid by the Algerian taxpayer (more than a billion US dollars) remains closed three years after completion.

Its realization was decided by the deposed president Abdelaziz Bouteflika at the time when petrodollars were pouring into Algeria. He laid the foundation stone on October 31, 2011. Eight years later, in April 2019, he was to inaugurate it with other achievements including the new international airport of Algiers. The "hirak", this formidable popular outburst, decided otherwise. Bouteflika will be chased out of power on April 2 and he will never taste the pleasure of inaugurating this achievement whose gigantism perfectly reflects the megalomania of its author. Just as the closure of this achievement is the perfect expression of the mismanagement that characterizes the governance of a country where we cultivate the craziest paradoxes.

The Great Mosque of Algiers, which has not yet been given an official name and it must have to avoid confusion with the oldest mosque of the capital of the medieval period, "El-Djamaa El-Kebir", built in 1097 in the district "La pêcherie" in the lower Casbah, is not only a place of worship. It includes several independent buildings, arranged on a plot of about 20 hectares with a gross area of over 400,000 m2, in Mohammadia, east of the capital, facing the Bay of Algiers.

The mosque is equipped with a research center on the history of Algeria, a museum of Islamic art and history, a conference room, a library of 2,000 seats and containing more than a million books, a covered parking lot for 6,000 vehicles, is located in the basement of the esplanade. It has an esplanade and several gardens. In addition, there is an amphitheater, a hotel with 300 rooms, several seminar rooms, scientific areas, a shopping mall, restaurants, a leisure park and several administrative buildings. All these facilities have been closed for three years. What a mess!

In October 2020, the mosque was to be inaugurated by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on the occasion of the celebration of the birth of the Prophet of Islam (El-Mawlid Ennabaoui). Reached by the covid 19, he will be replaced by the Prime Minister of the time Abdelaziz Djerrad. But only the prayer room was inaugurated. Back in business after his treatment in Germany, Tebboune will not include the inauguration of the mosque on his agenda. However, since he is in the palace of El-Mouradia he has not had much to inaugurate in 3 years. The hadefi Miloud stadium in Oran, on the occasion of the 2022 Mediterranean Games in Oran and the Nelson Mandela stadium in Baraki in the suburbs of Algiers for the African Nations Championship (open to locals) last January.

The celebration with great fanfare of the 60th anniversary of independence would have been the ideal occasion to inaugurate this gigantic achievement. But, Tebboune will be satisfied to unveil a fresco, in tribute to the resistance fighters deported in the 19th century after the colonization.

It is more than legitimate to wonder about the reasons for this closure that no one would dare to denounce in Algeria. It is a taboo subject. For its part, the population, in the absence of credible and convincing information, multiplies the explanations from the most serious to the most far-fetched. But, generally, those who return most often retain the inability of Algerian officials to find skills to manage these facilities. They want to prove the appointment of Mohamed Mamoune El kacimi El Housseini as rector of the Great Mosque of Algiers, with the rank of minister, since March 10, 2022. Since his appointment, it has been a year, this rector has not given any sign of life and has not shown any action that can justify his salary of minister. However, it is his duty to form a team that will oversee the management of the various facilities. Therefore, the question of unavailable skills can be retained.

The second explanation given by the Algerian population is related to the phobia of Algerian leaders of popular gatherings especially in mosques and stadiums. This hypothesis is plausible insofar as the prayer hall is open for four prayers but not the fifth (the last of the day) which must be followed by the supererogatory prayers of the month of Ramadan (the tarawih). Nor to the weekly Friday prayer. The authorities fear a massive influx of people from various working-class neighborhoods. The risk of seeing the faithful trigger demonstrations at the exit of the mosque is big. The anger of citizens, in this month of Ramadan, is at its peak. Soaring prices and shortages of food staples. Repression, excessive stifling of all popular claims and incarceration daily throughout the country of citizens daring to brave the arbitrariness of a regime increasingly unpopular. All the ingredients to provoke demonstrations of popular protest are present.

The political-military power does not hesitate to do anything to ensure peace, however random it may be, even if it means leaving in a state of abandonment a gigantic complex of which it aspired to take pride. In any case, many other achievements are pending. The airport of Algiers does not turn at full speed. Algeria is not a tourist destination. It happens that planes take off empty from Algiers and return, empty, too. No later than March 24, the flight Algiers-Nantes provided by the public company Tassili Airlines had barely 35 passengers. It should be noted that this is a weekly flight. In the opposite direction, on March 26, only 16 passengers were on board the Boeing 737-800. The stadiums are also in lack of public. The stadiums Brakni of Blida, Nelson Mandela of Baraki, the 5 July of Chéraga are closed and open only to the rare international competitions. Others are in the same case as the mosque. Those of Tizi-Ouzou and Douéra. 

Waste, mismanagement and incompetence have never found a better breeding ground than the new Algeria of the tandem Tebboune-Chengriha.