Halal Matchmaking in Minneapolis

The Muslim community in Minneapolis

Minneapolis is home to the largest Somali community in the United States, and for a Somali or East African Muslim searching for a spouse, few American cities feel more familiar. The Cedar-Riverside neighbourhood, widely nicknamed "Little Mogadishu," clusters mosques, halal shops and community life within a few dense blocks, and the wider Twin Cities are home to tens of thousands of predominantly Sunni Somali Muslims. That means a real, rooted, practising community rather than a scattered few. Zawji was founded in the Nordics and most of our members are still in Scandinavia, so I want to be honest: we are only beginning to reach cities like Minneapolis. But Zawji is open to anyone, anywhere, for free. If you are a Muslim in the Twin Cities tired of swipe-apps that treat marriage like a game, you can join today, write a real profile in your own words with deen and intention at the centre, and be among the first here as the community grows.

The Twin Cities hold the largest Somali diaspora in the US, with Somali-ancestry residents in Minnesota numbering in the tens of thousands and the great majority living in and around Minneapolis. The community is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, and Cedar-Riverside functions as its cultural heart, packed with mosques, restaurants and Somali-owned businesses. Alongside the Somali community, Minneapolis is also home to Oromo, Arab and South Asian Muslims. For anyone whose parents came from the Horn of Africa, this is one of the most culturally connected places to be Muslim in America.

The Cedar-Riverside neighbourhood of Minneapolis is so central to Somali-American life that it is widely known as "Little Mogadishu," after Somalia's capital.