Taha Hassane Oral History

Taha Hassane is an Arabic immigrant who was born and grew up in Algeria. He moved to the  United States in 2001 with his family and then was invited to serve as the Imam(Director) of the  Islamic Center of San Diego in 2004. He started developing his faith and career in high school.  When he saw young people’s numbness to their culture and the world, he wished that he could be the person to guide them and help them out, thus he went to Islamic University for faith studies.  Now he leads the largest mosque in San Diego county and actively cooperates with UCSD as well as Majdal Center to give more help to younger generations and new immigrants. The interview covered topics such as his career development and devotion as a community director,  his faith-building practices, his experiences with new immigrants, his cooperation with UCSD  and Majdal, and COVID-19’s influences on the operations of the Islamic Center. This interview was arranged by Ramah Awad, Community Organizer at the Majdal Center and Chair of the  Steering Committee. This interview is delivered through zoom to practice social distancing during the pandemic and take care of participants’ health. It was conducted by Hongfei Lyu,  a third-year Math-Computer Science major at UCSD who is interested in the history of Arab immigration to San Diego and religious leadership in building community.