​Imam Mujahid Abdul Karim founded Masjid Al-Rasul (No. 1), in 1980, over 30 years ago, in the Watts community of Los Angeles, California. The current site of the mosque was the first masjid to teach Ithnā'Ashari (“Twelver”) Shia Islam in a strategic historical African American indigenous community. Masjid Al Rasul of Watts, Los Angeles, was also the first masjid in the United States to be established exclusively owned and operated by Indigenous American Shias.

 

Currently, Masjid Al Rasul Foundation has three masjid site locations in Los Angeles, CA, Houston, TX and Chicago, IL USA.

 

Masjid Al-Rasul is organized under the auspices of the national organization, Sacred House of Al-Islam, Inc., (d/b/a Masjid Al-Rasul Foundation), a 501c(3) federal tax-exempt religious organization (Federal Tax Exempt ID No. 95-4077093).

Masjid Al-Rasul’s vision is to establish masjids and Islamic communities in the poorest neighborhoods in the U.S., in order to help improve the lives of people that are the most impoverished, oppressed and “forgotten” people of America.

In 1992, Masjid Al-Rasul of Watts, Los Angeles became the site of the first-ever “ceasefire” truce between the two largest national rival gangs: “Crips” & “Bloods.” A treaty was signed at Masjid Al-Rasul by dozens of high-ranking gang members from across the Los Angeles, California area. This historical truce not only successfully reduced the murder rate in Los Angeles, California, but was also the catalyst to similar “ceasefire” truces with other gangs across America. This peace initiative significantly reduced violence throughout the United States.

 

Sheikh Mujahid often makes a historical analogy of this truce to the truce made by the two major warring tribes of the holy city of Medina, the ‘Aws’ and ‘Khazraj’ tribes, the two tribes that later would be known as the ‘Ansar’ (or the “helpers” in Arabic) to the Prophet, Muhammad (s.a.w.a.). 

Consequently, during a violent period in American history — a time when riots ran rampant across America, due to the aftermath of the “Rodney King Incident,” Masjid Al-Rasul was instrumental in helping to reduce violence and bring peace to America by pioneering the “Peace Initiative” between gangs throughout the US.

​