[4] The original building was erected by architect Ernest Van Humbeeck in a neo-Moorish style, to form the Oriental Pavilion of the Brussels International Exposition of 1897.

Its location at the north-west end of the park was chosen during a visit made by the Count, the Minister of Arts Léon de Bruyn and Gédéon Bordiau, the architect in charge of developing the site.

[7] The mosque, whose round structure was preserved, but whose appearance was thoroughly changed after a long reconstruction carried out at the expense of Saudi Arabia by the Tunisian architect Mongi Boubaker, was solemnly inaugurated in 1978 in the presence of Khalid ibn Abd al-Aziz and Baudouin.

[9][5] By decree signed by Belgian education minister André Bertouille in 1983, the mosque was put under the control of the Muslim World League, which then received three positions on its board of directors.

[12] Belgian parliamentarian Willy Demeyer has criticised the mosque’s organisation as outdated: "Today, Muslims are present in every district of Belgium and the vast majority of them wish to live out their beliefs in peace – it is to them that we should be handing over the most representative place of Belgian Islam..."[4] In the aftermath of the November 2015 Paris attacks, imams and officials of the mosque stated that Islam is a religion of peace and has “nothing to do with the terrorists”.

[7][11] In October 2017, the Belgian secretary of state of asylum and migration, Theo Francken, revoked the residence permit of the Egyptian-trained imam of the mosque, Abdelhadi Sewif.

[4] A public commission investigating the 2016 Brussels bombings found that 9 participants of courses at the mosque had joined the ranks of foreign fighters of radical groups in the Middle East.

[16] In February 2018, Saudi Arabia agreed to give up control of the mosque in a sign that it is trying to shed its reputation as a global exporter of an ultra-conservative brand of Islam.

The government thus enacts a recommendation of the commission investigating the 2016 Brussels bombings that aimed at ending interference of foreign states in the Islam taught in Belgium.

[20] As of 2018, the nonprofit organization Centre Islamique et Culturel de Belgique, or, in Dutch, Islamitisch en Cultureel Centrum van België (lit.