Immediately following his re-election in 2001 as the mayor of Marseille, Jean-Claude Gaudin promised the construction of a Grande Mosquée and Islamic Cultural Centre for the Muslim community, who today account for approximately one quarter of the city's inhabitants. The proposal is certainly long overdue; requests for an official mosque date back to Gaudin's initial election in 1995, and the places of worship that currently exist for Muslims are often nothing more than simple prayer rooms in suburban housing projects. Although he has not always been supportive of the idea – the mayor once replied that he was definitely in favour of the construction of the mosque, "but in Marrakech" – the main obstacle now lies in uniting the Muslim population, who come from backgrounds as culturally and geographically diverse as Algeria and Comoros. It seems that even when the local government has finally agreed to the much-needed project, they still aren't sure to whom to give the keys.
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