History
When the organization was established, there were hardly any Shi'a communities of native African origin in the Sub-Saharan Africa. Now, there are several.
The website of their Tanzania branch writes:
| “ | When past Chairman Ebrahim Hussein Sheriff went to see Ayatullah Uzama Seyid Muhsin Al-Hakim A.M. in early Sixtys: Ayatullah asked Haji Ebrahim “How long are you people in East Africa?” to which Haji-Ebrahim replied “About a hundred years.” “How many Africans have accepted Mazhabe Haq?” Was the next question. To which the reply was “none”. Immediately Agha asked Haji Ebrahim that “Will these people not complain on Youmal Hashr that you knew the right path, yet you did not show them?”
It was therefore decided in the meeting of Supreme Council of the Federation of K.S.I Jamaats of Africa at Tanga to start the mission and ultimately BILAL MUSLIM MISSION was established in 1968 and a sister organization BILAL MUSLIM MISSION OF KENYA was incorporated in 1971 and Allamah Sayyid Saeed Akhtar Rizvi became Chief Missionary. |
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They are now part of the World Federation of KSI Muslim Communities, an international umbrella organization that was formed in the 1976, after 1500 Shi'a twelver families emigrated from East Africa to the United Kingdom and Canada.
The carried out missionary efforts aimed at both non-Muslims and Sunni Muslims, and their efforts intensified after the Iranian Revolution.
In the late 1970s, the Bilal Muslim Mission and World Organization for Islamic Services had sent many books to America, by July 1977, about 5,770 books and booklets had been mailed out.
The Bilal Muslim Mission is recoqnized by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs.
Read more about this topic: Bilal Muslim Mission
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