However, the Congress was viewed widely as an attempt by the mufti to enhance his prestige in advance of a bid for the office of caliph.
This position had remained vacant since a Pan-Islamic Congress in Mecca in 1926 had failed to agree on a suitable candidate to replace King Hussein of Hejaz.
A rival clan of the Husaynis, the Nashashibis, helped to ensure that the mufti was unsuccessful in his bid for the caliphate.
Following the election of Husayni as president of the Congress the agenda was arranged as follows: The Congress resolved that "Zionism is ipso facto an aggression detrimental to Muslim well-being, and that it is directly or indirectly ousting Moslems from the control of Muslim land and Muslem Holy Places".
It was also resolved that the Congress should meet at intervals of two or three years and that resolutions should be enacted by an Executive Committee chaired by Husayni.