Last month the first U.S. mosque financed and built by a Muslim woman opened in Las Vegas called Masjid Ibrahim. “It is… a lifetime dream, “ says Sharaf Haseebullah. “It is the final accomplishment.”
In 1975, Sharaf Haseebullah and her husband, Syed, immigrated to the United States from their home-country of Pakistan. They moved to Las Vegas in 1990, and continued their careers as pharmacists. Five years later, the couple purchased land which became a small, makeshift mosque for the local community. After her husband’s death in 2005, Ms. Haseebullah decided to invest her savings and build a new, grander mosque on the property.
Construction began on the 7,000-square-foot mosque in 2012, at a cost of $3 million. Ms. Haseebullah says she not only envisioned Masjid Ibrahim to be a house of worship, but also serve as a community center where residents of all faiths could use the computers, receive career advice, and get child-care services.
