The listed building, designed by the Art Nouveau architect Ferdinand Boberg and completed in 1903, was already influenced by "Moorish" Islamic architecture in its original version.

One of the largest financiers was Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, principal founder and former head of state of the U.A.E., whom the mosque was named after.

[2] In 2013, Femen activists Aliaa Elmahdy and two others staged a protest in the mosque against Sharia law and the oppression of women.

He had collected the equivalent of 87000 euro to the salafi jihadist group al-Nusra Front among visitors to the Stockholm mosque.

An article in Svenska Dagbladet said that critics of the European Council had stated that it had ties to the Sunni movement Muslim Brotherhood, and that the leadership of the mosque was influenced by it.

[5] Liberal Party politician Fredrik Malm claims that during the conference al-Qaradawi expressed his support of suicide attacks against Israeli civilians and called holy war.

[7] In November 2005 Sveriges Radio stated that a bookshop located in the mosque had sold audio tapes with harsh antisemitic content.

According to Lambertz the statements made on the tapes were, although "highly critical of the Jews", not a violation of Swedish law and because they have to be viewed "in the light of the historical and present conflict in the Middle East.