Islamic Center of Hawthorne — Attraction in Hawthorne

I attended this mosque when I lived in Los Angeles County before moving to Florida. It was close to my employment and convenient for me to attend Juma'ah prayers. The mosque has hand held radios which transmit the Khutbah (sermons) in English for those who do not speak Arabic language. The location is midway between rich areas like El Segundo Beach, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, and high crime areas like Lawndale, Alondro Park, and Inglewood. Parking tends to be a big issue especially during Ramadan. The congregation is often quick to openly criticize Muslims who they do not believe fit their ideology of 'good Muslims', but are not so quick to openly criticize themselves and openly self examine their own individual hypocrisies and failures. For example, complaining a business is not performing 'Halal' practices, but then the individuals go about their daily lives shopping at establishments which sell alcohol and other "non-Halal" items. As far as the services and events, they are okay. There was some disorganization with Iftar and rotation of responsibilities during Ramadan. I do not have a child, so I cannot grade their school. Some other sisters who I knew had children who went there and I did not hear complaints from them. This congregation makes efforts to do good things, but their efforts are thwarted by their lack of transparency. They need to exert more effort to be more welcoming to their local community, being less openly critical of other Muslims, and more welcoming to...

I am very disappointed about the changes I observed in the school. They don't have any USA credential standard teachers, even though they are educated and have graduated from other countries. So they don't know how to prepare students for higher levels of academics, which is very important. I have known a couple of families surrounding them and their children, and I've noticed how much they are behind. Yes, children can learn some religious knowledge, but it's not enough to survive in this country. I have doubts that the administration cares about that. I also observed an event very recently, which was very disorganized and gradually declined. It's very sad to watch the...

I was traveling from out of town and needed a place to pray Dhuhr/Asr. It's a medium sized, clean masjid. I entered from the side because I figured the front entrance was for the brother's. But that ended up being right in front of the brother's bathroom and wudu area. Luckily I came after the prayer rush. I had to ask a young brother where the sister's area was because it was completely dark. The sister's prayer area is in the main room and separated by a curtain. I liked that they had prayer clothes available to use. There is also an Islamic school adjacent to the masjid and a playground behind it. Very...