Bilal Philips facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Bilal Philips |
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Philips in August 2010
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| Religion | Islam |
| Denomination | Sunni |
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| Nationality | Canadian |
| Born | Dennis Bradley Philips July 17, 1947 Kingston, Jamaica |
| Honors | The 500 Most Influential Muslims (2009-2022) |
Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips (born Dennis Bradley Philips; July 17, 1947) is a Jamaica-born Canadian Islamic teacher, speaker, author, founder and chancellor of the International Open University, who lives in Qatar.
He has written, translated and commented on over 50 Islamic books and has appeared or presented on numerous national and satellite television channels, including Saudi TV, Sharjah TV, Ajman TV, Islam Channel, Huda TV, and Peace TV.
Contents
Biography
Early life
Philips was born in Kingston, Jamaica, to high school teachers Bradley Philips and Joyce McDermott. Philips has one brother and one sister, as well as an adopted brother. Philips was raised a Christian, with his mother being an Anglican and his father a Presbyterian.
Philips spent the first 11 years of childhood in Jamaica, before migrating to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He attended Jarvis Collegiate Institute for junior high and Northview Heights Collegiate Institute for high school from 1962 to 1965. Philips moved with his family to Sabah, East Malaysia in 1964, as his parents were part of the Colombo Plan.
Education
Philips attended Simon Frasier University in Vancouver from 1967 to 1970, where he took biochemistry. Philips had encountered Islam several times in his travels, but the book that won him over was Islam, The Misunderstood Religion by Muhammad Qutb. He converted to Islam in February 1972, giving Shahada in the presence of Abdullah Hakim Quick.
He received his B.A. degree from the Islamic University of Madinah and his M.A. in ʿAqīdah (Islamic Theology) from the King Saud University in Riyadh, then to the University of Wales, St. David's University College (now University of Wales, Trinity Saint David). There at the Lampeter Campus he completed his 1993 PhD thesis, Exorcism in Islam.
Preaching and career
Philips taught Islamic studies for a decade at Manarat al-Riyadh School in Riyadh and was an Arabic and Islamic studies teacher in the American University of Dubai for 10 years as well. He also lectures at the Ajman University (AU) in the United Arab Emirates. Philips set up an Islamic Studies department of Preston University in Ajman in 2002 and set up the Islamic Studies Academy in Qatar in 2007.
During the First Gulf War, Philips organized Islamic religious revival meetings for U.S. troops stationed in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, during which (according to Philips) over three thousand soldiers converted to Islam. According to counter-extremism author J.M. Berger, some of the US military men and women who participated in his revival program were later recruited as volunteer trainers in the 1992-95 Bosnian War. Philips founded and taught at the Islamic Information Center in Dubai, under the Dar al Ber Society, and in Qatar he was an Islamic consultant and lecturer for the Islamic Information wing of Sheikh Eid Charity.
Islamic Online University
Philips founded the Islamic Online University in Qatar in the year of 2001.
Views
Regarding his statement "Western culture, led by the United States, is the enemy of Islam," he has explained in an interview in Austrolabe that it was taken out of context, and that he was quoting Samuel P. Huntington’s famous statement on the clash of civilisations. When asked in an interview with author Berger about his statement in an earlier lecture that "he did believe in the `clash of civilizations,` and that America was the enemy of Islam" he explains that he opposes the effort by "globalized western civilization" to "push ... secular democracy ... down the throats of the rest of the world."
In an interview in Austrolabe, republished in Muslim Matters, Philips calls himself a "moderate" and the claim that he is an extremist "baseless". He has also stated that he is opposed to Al-Qaeda and any type of terrorism in the name of Islam.
See also
- List of Da'ees
- List of Islamic studies scholars
- Dawah
- Islam in Canada
- Zakir Naik
- Muhammad bin Jamil Zeno
- Yusuf Estes
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