The Bilal Muslim Mission is an international Shi'a twelver organization, established in East Africa on December 25, 1964 through the efforts of Sayyid Saeed Akhtar Rizvi, Hussein Nasser Walji and other dedicated volunteers.. The organization is named after Bilal ibn Ribah, the famous African Sahabi.
When the organization was established, there were hardly any Shi'a communities of native African origin in the Sub-Saharan Africa. Now, there are several.
The website of their Tanzania branch writes:
It was therefore decided in the meeting of Supreme Council of the Federation of K.S.I Jamaats of Africa at Tanga to start the mission and ultimately BILAL MUSLIM MISSION was established in 1968 and a sister organization BILAL MUSLIM MISSION OF KENYA was incorporated in 1971 and Allamah Sayyid Saeed Akhtar Rizvi became Chief Missionary.
They are now part of the World Federation of KSI Muslim Communities, an international umbrella organization that was formed in the 1976, after 1500 Shi'a twelver families emigrated from East Africa to the United Kingdom and Canada.
The carried out missionary efforts aimed at both non-Muslims and Sunni Muslims, and their efforts intensified after the Iranian Revolution.
In the late 1970s, the Bilal Muslim Mission and World Organization for Islamic Services had sent many books to America, by July 1977, about 5,770 books and booklets had been mailed out.
The Bilal Muslim Mission is recoqnized by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs.
Bi-monthly magazines:
Books: The Mission has more than 108 (57 English, 51 Swahili) books written on a wide range of Islamic topics.