Great Mosque of Brussels

The Oriental Pavilion (1897)

The original building was erected by the architect Ernest Van Humbeeck in a neo-Moorish style, to form the Oriental Pavilion of the Brussels International Exposition of 1897. At that time, the pavilion housed a monumental painting on canvas, Panorama of Cairo (exactly titled Cairo and the Banks of the Nile), by the painter Emile Wauters, which enjoyed major success. This work from 1880–81 had been intended for the Neue Panorama in Vienna. Brought back to Belgium after a fire destroyed the Viennese rotunda, the panorama had been stored in an disused warehouse in the municipality of Molenbeek-Saint-Jean. In 1895, however, the painting was purchased by Count Louis Cavens, who donated it to the Belgian state after restoration. In order to house the work, the patron thus had a mosque-shaped building erected at his own expense in the Parc du Cinquantenaire/Jubelpark. Its location at the park's north-western end was chosen during a visit made by the count, the minister of arts Léon de Bruyn, and Gédéon Bordiau, the architect in charge of developing the site.

Built from durable materials—bricks, marble and iron—the building was intended to become an annexe to the Royal Museums of Decorative and Industrial Arts. After the world's fair, however, the building and its panorama were soon closed to the public, and as early as 1901, they started showing signs of deterioration, so the question of their maintenance was raised. The painter Alfred Bastien carried out an initial restoration in 1923, followed by a second in 1950, to repair damage caused to the glass roof during World War II. The attraction finally closed in 1963. The Belgian state did not have the necessary means to maintain the building, which was abandoned, eaten away by humidity and open to all winds. Dismantled in 1971, the canvas eventually disappeared. A few fragments are now preserved in private collections.

The Great Mosque (1978)

In 1967, King Baudouin of Belgium lent the building to King Faisal of Saudi Arabia with a 99-year rent-free lease, on an official visit to Belgium as part of negotiations to secure oil contracts. The building was turned into a place of worship for the use of Muslim immigrants to Belgium, who at the time were notably from Morocco and Turkey. As part of the deal, imams from the Gulf area would be hired, and although their orthodox Salafism was of a different tradition than that of the more open-minded Sunni immigrants, according to the politician Georges Dallemagne, their teachings would over time turn these immigrants towards a more orthodox tradition and would also discourage them from integrating into Belgian society.

The mosque, whose round structure was preserved, but whose appearance was thoroughly changed after a long reconstruction carried out at the expense of Saudi Arabia by the Tunisian architect Mongi Boubaker, was solemnly inaugurated in 1978 in the presence of Khalid ibn Abd al-Aziz and Baudouin.

Organisation

By decree signed by the Belgian education minister André Bertouille in 1983, the mosque was put under the control of the Muslim World League, which then received three positions on its board of directors. The mosque is also financed by the Muslim World League, which in turn is financed by the Saudi government. The Islamic Cultural Center (ICC) hosts a school and an Islamic research centre whose objectives are to propagate the Muslim faith. The prayers are in Arabic. The centre also provides courses of Arabic for adults and children, as well as introductory courses in Islam and other activities geared towards solidarity.

The Belgian parliamentarian Willy Demeyer has criticised the mosque's organisation as outdated: "Today, Muslims are present in every district of Belgium and the vast majority of them wish to live out their beliefs in peace – it is to them that we should be handing over the most representative place of Belgian Islam..."

Accusation of promoting extremism

The ICC's director Khalid Alabri, who propagated the Takfiri dogma, was expelled by Belgian authorities for his extreme views in 2012. In the aftermath of the November 2015 Paris attacks, the mosque's imams and officials stated that Islam is a religion of peace and has "nothing to do with the terrorists".

In October 2017, the Belgian secretary of state of asylum and migration, Theo Francken, revoked the residence permit of the mosque's Egyptian-trained imam, Abdelhadi Sewif. Francken cited his salafist ideology, his conservative stance and the imam being a danger to Belgian society and national security as reasons for the revocation. Sewif denied any connection with extremism and appealed to the country's highest migration authority, but Belgium's deputy premier, Jan Jambon, shot down his chance of a successful appeal.

Saudi Arabia relinquishing control

In February 2018, Saudi Arabia agreed to give up control of the mosque in a sign that it is trying to shed its reputation as a global exporter of an ultra-conservative brand of Islam.