Bilal Philips

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Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips is a Muslim teacher, speaker, and author. He appears on Peace TV, which is a 24/7 Islamic channel broadcast to many countries.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Education

Dr. Philips was born in 1947 in Jamaica, but grew up in Canada, where he converted to Islam in 1972. He completed a diploma in Arabic language and a B.A. degree in 1979 from the College of Islamic Disciplines at the Islamic University of Madinah, an Islamic university in Saudi Arabia. At the University of Riyadh College of Education he completed his M.A. in Islamic Theology in 1985, and in 1994 he completed his Ph.D in Islamic Theology in the department of Islamic studies at the University of Wales. He later taught Islamic education and Arabic language in private schools in Riyadh for over ten years. Because of his opposition to Saudi Arabia's position in the Gulf War, he had to leave the country and for three years he lectured M.Ed. students in the Islamic Studies department of Shariff Kabunsuan College (SKC) in Cotabato City, Mindanao, the Philippines.

[edit] Islamic Information Center

Since 1994, he has founded and directed the Islamic Information Center (which is now known as Discover Islam) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and is known as a prolific speaker and author on topics relating to Islam, including audio lectures and books. Presently, he is a lecturer of Arabic language and Islamic Studies at the American University in Dubai and ‘Ajman University in Ajmān, United Arab Emirates. He frequently appears at the Islamic Research Foundation in Mumbai, India, on lecture tours. He has also founded the Distance Learning Program called Islamic Online University, which offers a four year degree in Islamic Studies plus a variety of short courses. Dr. Philips is something of a pioneer as a person of Western origin achieving the status of a scholar of Islam inside the tradition. He has also been a major voice of a kind of Salafism, though splits among Salafis mean that he is not popular with all of them.[citation needed]

[edit] Controversy

In April 2007, Australian and U.S media reported that Philips was denied a visa to enter Australia in order to speak at an Islamic conference in Melbourne.[1][2] The reports stated that the denial was based upon a check of the "movement alert list" which includes individuals who might pose a national security list. The reports also indicated that the U.S. government had named Philips as an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and he was deported from the US in 2004. The reports also stated that Philips had once written that "Western culture, led by the United States, is the enemy of Islam."

In an interview given at during that same time, Philips accused the Australian authorities of "blindly following American allegations and unsubstantiated false accusations" claiming that investigations in the U.K. , Canada, and Australia had found no evidence that he was connected with terrorism.[3] In this interview, he also stated that he had not entered the U.S since 1995, characterizing the accusation that he had been deported in 2004 as an "outright lie" that should be followed by a defamation suit although there is no indication that such a suit was filed. Philips also called the statement that he was an "unindicted co-conspirator” in the 1993 World Trade Center "really a joke" claiming that it was based on a "supposedly leaked report" of over 100 prominent Muslims that were never charged, although unindicted individuals are never charged by definition.

[edit] Works

  • Fundamentals of Tawheed.
  • Tafseer Soorah al-Hujuraat: A Commentary on the 49th Chapter of the Qur’aan. Riyadh: Tawheed Publications, 1411/1990
  • Usool at-Tafseer: The Methodology of Qur’aanic Explanation. Sharjah, UAE: Dar al-Fatah, 1997
  • The Evolution of Fiqh (Islamic Law & The Madh-habs. 3rd revised edition Riyadh: Tawheed Publications, 1990).
  • The Devil's Deception (Tablees Iblees)

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Radical sheik refused entry for Islamic talks | The Australian
  2. ^ http://washingtontimes.com/upi/20070403-080400-9803r
  3. ^ IISNA | Islamic Information & Services Network of Australasia

[edit] External links