Constructed in 1978, the mosque located in Petit-Saconnex in Geneva is Switzerland’s largest.
In a recent interview in Paris, Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Issa, Secretary General of the Saudi-based Muslim World League, the organisation that funded the mosque’s construction, told the newspaper Tribune de Genève that the organisation would stop managing and funding the mosque.
In 2017, the mosque fired four French employees, including two imams, that the French police had listed as having suspected links to radical islam, according to RTS. In addition, two of those arrested in connection with the murder of two Scandinavian tourists in Morocco, spent time at the mosque.
In an RTS interview in November 2019 with Monica Bonfanti, head of Geneva Police, the interviewer talked about how the mosque had been described as the most problematic in Europe.
Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Issa told Tribune de Genève that the running of the mosque will be entrusted to the local and regional muslim community and Swiss authorities.
However, future funding of the mosque is unclear. The canton of Geneva is a secular state that does not provide funding to religious organisations.
The Muslim World League was founded in 1962 to propagate Islam and to improve worldwide understanding of the religion. Funded by the Saudi Government and headquartered in Mecca, it works to improve Islamic mass media as a means of propagating Islam and Islamic culture, advocates for the application of Sharīʿah law by individuals and groups as well as by states, organises symposia and other educational events, promotes the teaching of Arabic, and seeks to foster better relations between Islamic religious associations, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica.
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Tribune de Genève article (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
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