Visitors arriving for 100th anniversary prayers Friday included people from different regions around Paris, those born in France or those who came over the decades from Algeria, Senegal and beyond. Many trace their origins to France\u2019s colonial empire.<\/p>\n
The Paris city tourism office\u2019s website lists the mosque as a top attraction, calling its ornate, carpeted prayer room a \u201cmust-see.\u201d Inspired by the Alhambra in Spain\u2019s Granada, the mosque has a 33-meter (108-foot)-high minaret that overlooks the Seine River \u2014 complementing but not overshadowing the twin towers of nearby Notre Dame Cathedral. The mosque houses a popular tea room and hammam steam baths.<\/p>\n
But most of all it is a place of worship and history.<\/p>\n
French authorities wanted to honor the \u2018\u2019blood spilled\u2033 during WWI by Muslim soldiers who died in trenches of Verdun and beyond to defend France, Hafiz said. Most came from colonies in Africa.<\/p>\n
The mosque\u2019s imam during the Nazi occupation of Paris, Abdelkader Mesli, helped shelter Jews and supply false documents to try to protect them, and was later himself deported to death camps, according to Hafiz. He survived, but returned in poor health and died a few years later. Mesli\u2019s wartime efforts were rediscovered in 2015 when his family found notebooks documenting the period.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it was built, French President Gaston Doumergue made a declaration reminding us that France\u2019s diversity could only reinforce its national community,\u201d Hafiz said, calling it a \u201dbeautiful message.”<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe the political will and the political message have remained unchanged\u2019\u2019 since 1926, Hafiz said. \u2018\u2019The problem lies in people\u2019s attitudes. Today, anti-Muslim acts are still being committed against Muslims. Islam is often misunderstood, and talking about Muslims or Islam can trigger hostility.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Islam is now the second religion in France, which has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe. But the country\u2019s Muslims often struggle to gain full acceptance and face discrimination. Stigmas against Muslims worsened after deadly Islamic extremist attacks in France over the past decade.<\/p>\n
France is in the midst of a campaign for next year\u2019s presidential election so far dominated by Marine Le Pen and her far-right National Rally, which has targeted Islam and immigration.<\/p>\n
Fatma Chouchane, a volunteer at the Grand Mosque, lamented restrictions on women wearing Muslim headscarves in French schools and some workplaces.<\/p>\n
\u201cI ask France to leave these people alone\u201d and let them make their religious choices, she said.<\/p>\n
Like other worshippers at Friday\u2019s prayers, however, she focused on messages of tolerance and celebrating the mosque anniversary.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a symbol, it is the Paris museum for Muslims,\u2033 she said. \u2033We must all be in solidarity.\u2033<\/p>\n
For Ibrahima Seye, the mosque was one of the first places he visited after arriving in France from Senegal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always open,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s good for the Muslim community, and I see that it\u2019s a mosque that is appreciated by a lot of tourists, too.\u2033<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Visitors arriving for 100th anniversary prayers Friday included people from different regions around Paris, those born in France…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[83,2297,30,1265,90],"class_list":["post-53363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-paris","tag-general-news","tag-islam","tag-paris","tag-religion","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}