About the author
Suhaib Webb
Suhaib Webb is a contemporary American-Muslim educator, activist, and lecturer. His work bridges classical and contemporary Islamic thought, addressing issues of cultural, social and political relevance to Muslims in the West. After converting to Islam in 1992, Webb left his career in the music industry to pursue his passion in education. He earned a Bachelor’s in Education from the University of Central Oklahoma and received intensive private training in the Islamic Sciences under a renowned Muslim Scholar of Senegalese descent. Webb was hired as the Imam at the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City, where he gave khutbas (sermons), taught religious classes, and provided counselling to families and young people; he also served as an Imam and resident scholar in communities across the U.S.
From 2004-2010, Suhaib Webb studied at the world’s preeminent Islamic institution of learning, Al-Azhar University, in the College of Shari`ah. During this time, after several years of studying the Arabic Language and the Islamic legal tradition, he also served as the head of the English Translation Department at Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah.
Outside of his studies at Al-Azhar, Suhaib Webb completed the memorization of the Quran in the city of Makkah, Saudi Arabia. He has been granted numerous traditional teaching licenses (ijazat), adhering to centuries-old Islamic scholarly practice of ensuring the highest standards of scholarship. Webb was named one of the 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center in 2010.
Assalaamo alaikum,
Having not read the report I am slightly aggrieved already. Sorry about the brashness!
It’s just that after a chance glance at the conclusion of the executive summary, I disagree with the following sentence.
” Muslims, like many other immigrant groups, came to the United States in search of religious and political freedom, in need of refuge and in hopes of prosperity.”
Sheikh Abdul Hakim Sherman Jackson has written a wonderful book (Islam and the Blackamerican) which, if read, enlightens and educates one that Muslims in America are a mixed bunch and that ‘immigrant Islam’ is the new kid on the block. Whilst also revealing that Blackamerican Muslims have been around for a good few decades before 1965 when the US government repealed the National Origins Act and the Asian Barred Zone legislation. “In fact, prior to the 1970s, Blackamericans dominated the American Sunni scene, at least in terms of those who actively identified themselves as practising Muslims.”
Getting the mind around the indigenous immigration to Islam, of those native to Europe/America, is proving to be a touch tricky for some. The two things which seem so synonymous, Islam and immigration, need to be clearly distinguished as neither is a prerequisite for the other. Islamic indigenous immigrants may enter Islam for one set of reasons (e.g.emotional/spiritual fulfilment) and foreign economic migrants may enter a country for completely opposite motives(e.g. monetary/educational progress). Although the very first generation of Muslims did migrate/accept migrators, they did so for the sole purpose of preserving their religion. So in their case migration and Islam were very much connected to one another.
Allah knows better.