PRESIDENT MACRON COMMEMORATES 100 ANNIVERSARY OF MOSK OF PARIS

USPA NEWS - The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron went on Wednesday October 19, 2022 to the Great Mosque of Paris to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the opening in 1922. After visiting the extraordinary historical exhibition "1922-2022 Premiers glances, first stone", President Emmanuel Macron gave a speech in which he commemorated the hundredth anniversary, to the day, of the laying of the first stone and paid tribute to the soldiers of the Muslim faith who died for France. The Minister of the Interior and also responsible for worship in France, Gerald Darmanin was also present, as well as other elected officials, such as the Mayor of Paris 5th, Florence Berthoud, Emmanuel Grégoire, the Deputy Mayor of Paris (Anne Hidalgo absent), the President of the French Academy, Bariza Khiari, former president of the Senate, Prefects, Rectors of Academy, Representatives religious and associations. At the end of this speech, he presented the insignia of Officer of the Legion of Honor to Mr. Chems-Eddine Hafiz, dean of the Grand Mosque, for his personal commitment and his successful initiatives on behalf of the secularism and at the service of peace and dialogue between religions and cultures "

The Great Mosque was erected in 1922 on the instructions of Marshal Lyautey who thus intended to thank Sultan Moulay Youssef (Mocnarche of Morocco) for sending thousands of Muslim soldiers who came to pierce their skin in the trenches of Verdun. Lyautey was very fond of Morocco. An orchestra sang religious songs and in the pure Moroccan tradition, welcomed a handful of journalists and the hundred guests, who settled in the gardens of the mosque, facing the moucharabieh. It is in a festive Arab-Muslim atmosphere that, for this great occasion, the Republican Guards were posted in front of the iconic Great Mosque of France. THE MOSQUE OF PARIS IS NOT ONLY A PLACE OF WORSHIP FOR MUSLIM MAS ALSO ARABIC LEARNING CENTER AND HAMMAM SALON DE TEA ORIENTAL The Great Mosque of Paris, the most famous of the mosques in France, In front of it, there is the Jardin des Plantes where it is good to lie down in the grass. Inside, there is a tea room with excellent oriental pastries. And its hammam is one of the best in Paris. The Great Mosque was erected in 1922 on the instructions of Marshal Lyautey of Morocco, who thus intended to thank Sultan Moulay Youssef (Monarch of Morocco) for sending thousands of Muslim soldiers who came to pierce their skin in the trenches of Verdun. Lyautey was very fond of Morocco.The speech of the President of the Republic Macron, was very applauded, and the sequence of decoration of legion of honor to the rector of the Mosque of Paris Chemseddine Hafiz, was crowned with a standing ovation, under the Arabic refrains of you you rhythms after women, intoning this traditional acclamation. This centenary commemoration ceremony and this magnificent mosque, a rare architectural gem, nestles in the golden triangle of the heart of Paris Latin, in the 5th arrondissement…chic and intellectual of Lutece…

SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC ON THE OCCASION OF THE COMMEMORATIONS OF THE CENTENARY OF THE GRAND MOSQUE OF PARIS.
« Mr. President of the Republic, Dear Nicolas Sarkozy, Mr. Minister, Ladies and Gentlemen of Parliament, Mr. Rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, Mr. Regional Prefect, Ladies and Gentlemen, Mayors, Gentlemen, Imams , Mr. Chief Rabbi of France, Mr. Archbishops, Mr. Elected Members, Mr. Ambassadors, Mrs. Permanent Secretary of the French Academy, Mr. Prefects, Mr. Rectors of Academy, Mr. Representatives religious and associations, ladies and gentlemen in your ranks and qualities, ladies and gentlemen, I must tell you the emotion that we all feel at being here in these places 100 years to the day, almost minute to minute, when on October 19, 1922 the first stone of the Great Mosque of Paris. The photos, the articles, the archives take us back a century in the exhibition that you have decided for the youth of this institution. «  President Macron as he introduced his speech.

The President then referred to « the support of the Army Museum and the Islamic Arts Department of the Louvre Museum, to retrace the extraordinary human adventure what is the Great Mosque of Paris, born of the recognition by the Third Republic of the place of Muslims in our society and of their sacrifice during the Great War » as he addressed the Dean of the Mosque. And I would like here to salute the work of your teams, Mr Rector, which was carried out with In saying this, I am well aware that in a historical picture any light stands out from a background of shadows, and that this project was obviously involved in colonial and diplomatic interests.

However, the fact remains that on this autumn day of 1922, our nation affirmed in the eyes of the world that one could be French and Muslim. And she affirmed it in the most obvious, the most lasting way: in stone." said the head of state ...

President Macron then recalled significant historical events in the history of France linked to that of Arab-Muslim countries, including Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt "It is by the will of the Republic and the efforts of the faithful that the project took shape, carried by an unprecedented national momentum, thanks to the almost unanimous vote of our parliamentarians, Edouard Herriot at their head. In order not to derogate from the law of 1905 which forbade the State to finance religions, recourse was had to colonial law.Nearly 2.3 million francs were paid by France to an association registered in Algiers, the Société des Habous des Lieux Saints de l'Islam, for the construction of the mosque. collection from Muslim countries throughout the empire completed the sum. And when, in the summer of 1926, President Gaston Doumergue, the Sultan of Morocco, Moulay Youssef, the Bey of Tunis Sidi Mohammed El Habib, the President of the Council Aristide Briand, the civil and military representatives of the Nation’s Delegation of Egypt, Persia, Turkey, Afghanistan, gathered to inaugurate it, the climate was one of jubilation and harmony."

THE CAPITAL PARIS HAS OFFERED THE MOSQUE A PLACE IN ITS HEART ON THIS HILL IN THE LATIN QUARTER" SAID PRESIDENT MACRON

President Macron highlighted how Paris, the French Capital offers a privilege location, in the intellectual and spiritual heart of Paris the mayor, where the spirit blows, in this golden triangle drawn by the Gallo-Roman arenas, the Natural History Museum and the Pantheon, an ancient, scientific and republican triad. Craftsmen from Fez have adorned it with pavements and mosaics, giving it its colors of "pearl, ruby ??and topaz" that the Koran lends to the Garden of Eden. In the shade of its Andalusian patio and its Tunisian minaret, between the Persian carpets woven with gold and the cedar ceilings of Lebanon, the whole range of Islamic arts is unfolding. We read there the diversity of the Muslim community of France, the largest in the Western world, rich in its varied origins, its multiple aspirations, its unique ways of believing. But whatever the path and sensitivity of its members, all can meet here to pray. Beyond a place of worship, they find there a place of life, a kind of house of Muslim culture with its institute, its school, its library, its conference

« EACH ONE OF YOU HAS AN EMINENT ROLE TO PLAY IN A CALL FOR RESPECT FOR REQUIREMENT, FRATERNITY AND SECULARITY, NEVER FORGET » PRESIDENT MACRON SAID

President Macron encouraged the audience and everyone to extend this demand for respectful dialogue and benevolence towards their neighbor: "It is a call for respect, for the requirement, for fraternity and for secularism united what I want to do here.
Each and every one of you has an eminent role to play in this regard, never forget that. Because despite everything that has been done for 100 years, and which allows us to stand here, the challenges are perhaps even greater, and the tears even more present, and the work that awaits us is immense. We will carry it out without naivety, without any complacency, with rigor, respect for our history, our values, our principles, our Republic in all its components and in all its principles."

« MR DREAN  CHEMSEDDINE HAFIZ, I HAVE THE HONOR TO AWARD YOU THE LEGION OF HONOR » PRESIDENT MACRON STATES
President Macron seemed to be honored and happy to worship the Dean of the Mosk of Paris, as he was about to offered him the highest and dead retissions medal, Legion d'Honneur. "But this vast work that I mentioned, this work of openness and culture, and I want to end my remarks by talking about you, Mr. Dean, owes you so much. Since the beginning of your mandate as rector in January 2020, you have advocated an Islam open to other religions, fully inscribed in the Republic, and yet more than any other, you could have harbored resentment towards France, because your Algerian childhood was branded by the conflict between our two nations. Your brother was killed in the maquis, and your sister tortured. You are one of those shared destinies, one of those lives trapped in the history that unites our two nations. But to the state of war, you answered, if I may say so, by the rule of law. To the way of arms, you preferred that of the law. ». stated French President Macron./