Messali Hadj
It was inaugurated on 16 July 1926, in the presence of French President Gaston Doumergue and Sultan Yusef of Morocco. Doumergue celebrated the Franco-Muslim friendship sealed by the bloodshed on the Western Front in World War I and affirmed that the Republic protected all beliefs. The Sufi Sheikh Ahmad al-Alawi led the first communal prayer to inaugurate the newly built mosque. On the eve of the inauguration, Messali Hadj held the first meeting of the "Etoile nord-africaine" (North African Star) and criticized the “mosque publicity stunt.”