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Suhaib Webb

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Suhaib Webb
Born
William Webb

(1972-06-29) June 29, 1972 (age 52)
Oklahoma
 United States
OccupationImam
Websitehttp://www.suhaibwebb.com

Suhaib Webb is a contemporary American-Muslim educator, activist, and lecturer.[2] He is currently the imam of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC), the largest mosque in the New England area.

Biography

Early life

He was born William Webb in 1972 in Oklahoma to a Christian family, including a grandfather who served as a preacher.[3] At age 14, he lost interest in religion going through a self-described spiritual crisis. He also began engaging in delinquency by joining a local gang, was involved in a drive by shooting, and became a successful local Hip-Hop DJ and producer,[2] making records with various artists.

Education

After converting to Islam in 1992, Webb left his career as a DJ and studied at the University of Central Oklahoma, where he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Education. He also studied privately under a Senegalese Sheikh, learning enough Islam and Arabic to become a community leader in Oklahoma City, where he was hired as Imam at The Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City.[3] He simultaneously started teaching at Mercy School, an Islamic K-12 school in Oklahoma City.

From 2004-2010, Suhaib Webb studied at the world’s preeminent Islamic institution of learning, Al-Azhar University, in the College of Shari`ah, in Cairo. During this time, after several years of studying the Arabic Language and the Islamic legal tradition, including Maliki Fiqh, he also served as the head of the English Translation Department at Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah.[3][dead link‍]

Career

Suhaib Webb is an active member of the Muslim American Society and its youth department and has been so for the last ten years. It is through the Muslim American Society's scholarship program that he was sent to Egypt to attain fluency in Arabic and focus on Islamic studies.[3] Webb frequently hosts lectures and posts articles offering Islamic perspectives on modern-day issues such as community involvement and social relevance.[4]

Apart from his studies, he frequently lectures in the United States and Malaysia, and records public lecture series on Islam and contemporary Muslim matters. After graduating from Al-Azhar, he moved to Santa Clara in the San Francisco Bay area, where he worked with the bay area Muslim American Society Office & Muslim Community Association. On December 1, 2011, Webb was inaugurated as the Imam of the Islamic Society of Boston's Cultural Center (ISBCC),[5] the largest Islamic center in New England.[6]

Reputation

Some UK government officials were quoted in a 2004 edition of The Guardian describing Webb as a "moderate leader" along with the likes of Hamza Yusuf and Amr Khaled.[7] Webb was named one of the 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in 2010.[8] Webb's website, www.SuhaibWebb.com, was voted the best "Blog of the Year" by the 2009 Brass Crescent Awards [9] and his tweets won him the vote of "Best Muslim Tweeter" of 2010.[10]

Views & Accomplishments

Webb joined a trip of imams to Auschwitz in 2010, followed by a public statement to condemning Holocaust-denial and anti-Semitism.[11] He helped raise $20,000 for widows and children of firefighters killed in the 9/11 attack.[12] He claims to be part of efforts to more effectively rebut militants and religious extremists [13][14] and is an advocate for grassroots Muslim activism to promote social change. He advocates for an American-style Islam, one which he claims to be true to the Quran and Islamic law but that reflects this country's customs and culture.[15][16]

Controversy

According to FBI surveillance documents,[17] Suhaib Webb joined Al Qaeda operative Anwar Awlaki (killed by U.S drone strike in 2011) two days before 9/11 in headlining a fundraiser on behalf of H Rap Brown, (aka Jamil al Amin) who had just murdered two police officers in Georgia. That night, Webb and Awlaki raised $100,000 to pay for Brown’s defense. Brown was found guilty of the murders. [17]

On April 19 2013, Suhaib Webb was replaced as the representative of Boston’s Muslim community [18] to the interfaith service honoring the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross by Governor Deval Patrick's office for undisclosed reasons. The Muslim American Society, with whom Webb has a long affiliation and continues to do so, according to the research of watchdog organizations including the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT), and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), has an anti-Semitic and anti-Israel history that started with its founding by members of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, the parent organization of the Palestinian group Hamas.[19]

References

  1. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jzUL3RPv5JM
  2. ^ a b "Islam is all-American for one U.S. Muslim leader". Reuters. March 20, 2011. Retrieved 2011-03-20.
  3. ^ a b c d "Suhaib Webb". Egypt Today. January 2008. Retrieved 2009-04-05.
  4. ^ "Islam is all-American for one U.S. Muslim leader". Reuters. March 20, 2011. Retrieved 2011-03-20.
  5. ^ http://isbcc.org/imamsuhaib/
  6. ^ "A New Imam, A New Outlook". The Boston Globe.
  7. ^ Saeed, Sohaib (July 9, 2004). "If Qaradawi is an extremist, who is left?". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2009-04-02.
  8. ^ "The 500 Most Influential Muslims" (PDF). Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre. Jordan. 2010. Retrieved 2011-03-20.
  9. ^ "Best Muslim Blog of the Year". Brass Crescent Awards. 2009. Retrieved 2011-03-20.
  10. ^ "Best Muslim Tweeter of the Year". Brass Crescent Awards. 2010. Retrieved 2011-03-20.
  11. ^ "Imams' trip to Auschwitz brings hope". Jerusalem Post. Jerusalem. August 22, 2010. Retrieved 2011-07-04.
  12. ^ Booth, Jenny (May 30, 2004). "The moderates". Times Online. London. Retrieved 2009-04-05.
  13. ^ "Muslims Combating Extremism". PBS. London. September 10, 2010. Retrieved 2011-07-04.
  14. ^ Goodstein, Laurie (July 31, 2010). "American Muslims Make Video to Rebut Militants". New York Times. New York. Retrieved 2011-07-04.
  15. ^ "The Need to be Socially relevant". ISNA. August 30, 2008. Retrieved 2009-04-05.
  16. ^ Abdulrahim, Raja (May 27, 2011). "Imam teaches Islam with a distinct U.S. style". Los Angeles Times. USA. Retrieved 2011-07-03.
  17. ^ a b http://www.shameonneu.com/images/fbi_webb_awlaki.pdf
  18. ^ http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/04/19/muslim-brotherhood-linked-mosque%E2%80%99s-imam-replaced-as-speaker-at-service-for-boston-marathon-attack-victims/
  19. ^ http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2013/4/18/muslim-brotherhood-linked-mosques-imam-replaced-as-speaker-at-service-for-boston-marathon-attack-victims

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