Sayyid Hassan al-Musawi al-Qazwini (Arabic: حسن الموسوي القزويني; born October 16, 1964) is an Iraqi-American Shia Imam.
While numerous scholars and religious leaders performed a good job reaching out to the Arabic speaking members of the community, the English-speaking generations needed someone who was capable of communicating with them, and so al-Qazwini devoted himself to learning and acquiring a fair grasp of the English language quickly.
[1] In early 1993, al-Qazwini was invited by the Islamic Center of America (ICA) in Dearborn; the oldest Shia mosque in the United States, as a guest speaker for the Arabic program during Ramadan, where the local community quickly found him responsive to their spiritual and religious needs.
The organization was aimed at educating Muslim-American youth, fostering leadership, and creating an environment in which they can actively and effectively channel their efforts in promoting Islam.
[5] Since the September 11 attacks, al-Qazwini stepped up his efforts to act as an ambassador for Muslim Americans, speaking at numerous churches, colleges and universities, hoping to dispel what he sees as common misconceptions about them.
The initiative brought leaders from Christianity, Judaism and Islam to work together to promote peaceful expression of faith and the renunciation of violence.
It is, first, a personal chronicle of Imam Hassan Qazwini's own trajectory from Karbala, Iraq, where he was born in 1964, to exile in Kuwait and Iran, to Dearborn, Mich., where he currently heads the Islamic Center of America.