Al-Quds Mosque

In the Roches Noire district, the Al-Quds Mosque serves as a peculiar Islamic religious center. In the 1920s, the building was built by a Frenchman named Eugène Lendrat. The initial purpose of the building was to serve as a Catholic church. The church was named Église de Sainte Marguerite and was a replicate of the Saint-Martin church in Pau. The area of Roches Noire, then, was initially a neighborhood for French people, and the church served the colonial relgion. In 1981, after King Hassan II's Morocconization policies caused Europeans to migrate away from Morocco, the church was turned into the Al-Quds Mosque. The exterior and interior exemplifies European traditional style, specifically Neo-Gothic. The services, though, now serve an Islamic purpose.

The Al-Quds Mosque shows how Casablanca continues to reject colonial influences on religion. As previously stated, a very small population in Morocco continues to practice Catholicism. Many of the Catholic churches in Casablanca today are non-functioning. What makes the Al-Quds Mosque so interesting, though, is that instead of being abandoned or turned into a cultural center, the church became a mosque. Not only is Casablanca rejecting the colonial religion, but Casablanca also changed this colonial church to match with their own religious identity. The Al-Quds Mosque represents Casablanca's post-colonial identity: the city continues to have colonial influence, but Muslim identities continue to prevail over the usage of space in Casablanca.