Edmonton, Alberta

Al Rashid Mosque

First mosque in Canada, second in North America.

The Al Rashid Mosque was intended to be the first mosque in North America.

In the early 1930s, the Muslim women of Edmonton met with Mayor John Fry with the hope of acquiring a plot of land in the north of the city on which the mosque might be built. With the help of donations from Muslim and non-Muslim Canadians from across the Prairie Provinces, funds were raised to begin the project. The contractor for the project was Mike Dreworth, a Ukranian-Canadian, who is likely responsible for the Eastern-Orthodox styled onion-domes on the mosque.

By the time construction was completed on the Al Rashid Mosque in 1938, a much less ambitious mosque had been completed in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Al Rashid Mosque was thus left with the still remarkable distinction of being the first mosque in Canada.

In 1990, the original Al Rashid Mosque was saved from demolition and moved to Fort Edmonton Park to join the dozens of other historic buildings which preserve and communicate the history of the city and the country. Each year, thousands of visitors discover the Al Rashid Mosque as an integral part of Western Canada’s history of fur-trading, farming, railroads, and worship.