Source: Union-Tribune
On August 7, 2003 the Union-Tribune reported that "in 1994, [Imam Alseyed Mohammad] Alqazwini immigrated to the United States with his wife, Zaherah, and their two sons, then 6 and 8 years old. (They have since had a daughter, who is now 6, and another son, who is 2.) His father, Mortada, who awaited him in Los Angeles, told them there was a great need for Shiite clerics to serve the growing Arab-American population in San Diego... 'There are probably 20,000 to 25,000 Shi'ah in San Diego County, because the Iranian community is very, very big,' Alqazwini says. 'Most of the Iraqis are first-generation immigrants who came here in 1990-91, about the time of the first Gulf War...' Alqazwini's father founded the Imam Ali Center, also known as the Islamic Center of Lakeside, in 1994. Three years ago, Alqazwini and his father established the Islamic Educational Center of San Diego to serve the Iranian and Afghani Shiite communities, as well as those Iraqis who found it difficult to make it to Lakeside."