Suhaib Webb
Encyclopedia
Early life
He was born William Webb in 1972 in OklahomaOklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
to a Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
family, including a grandfather who served as a preacher. 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
Gang
A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen...
, was involved in a drive by shooting
Drive by Shooting
Drive by Shooting is a hardcore punk solo E.P. by Henry Rollins, credited to "Henrietta Collins & The Wife-Beating Child-Haters", which served as a pre-cursor to the Rollins Band. This recording features a Wire cover, a re-vision of a Queen song and a parody of a Beach Boys style song...
, and became a successful local Hip-Hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
DJ and producer, 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 OklahomaUniversity of Central Oklahoma
The University of Central Oklahoma, often referred to as UCO, is a coeducational public university located in Edmond, Oklahoma. The university is the third largest in Oklahoma, with almost 18,000 students and approximately 434 full-time and 400 adjunct faculty...
, where he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Education. He also studied privately under a Senegalese Sheikh
Sheikh
Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...
, learning enough Islam and Arabic to become a community leader in Oklahoma City, where he was hired as Imam
Imam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
at The Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City. 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
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
. 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
Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah
Dār al-Iftā' al-Miṣriyyah is an educational institute founded to represent Islam and the international flagship for Islamic legal research since its establishment in 1313 AH/1895 CE...
.
Career
Apart from his studies, he frequently lectures in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Malaysia, and records public lecture series on Islam and contemporary Muslim matters. He resides in the Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
of the San Francisco Bay area and hosts a weekly "Real Talk" call-in radio show.. Suhaib Webb is an active member of the Muslim American Society
Muslim American Society
The Muslim American Society is a nonprofit organization founded in 1993 that describes itself as an Islamic revival and reform movement....
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
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
to attain fluency in Arabic and focus on Islamic studies
Islamic studies
In a Muslim context, Islamic studies can be an umbrella term for all virtually all of academia, both originally researched and as defined by the Islamization of knowledge...
.
Webb frequently hosts lectures and posts articles offering Islamic perspectives on modern-day issues such as community involvement and social relevance.
Reputation
UK government officials were recently quoted in The Guardian defining Webb as a "moderate leader" along with the likes of Hamza YusufHamza Yusuf
Hamza Yusuf Hanson is an Islamic scholar of the Sunni tradition, and co-founder of Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, United States. He is an American convert to Islam, and is one of the signatories of A Common Word Between Us and You, an open letter by Islamic scholars to Christian leaders,...
and Amr Khaled
Amr Khaled
Amr Mohamed Helmi Khaled is an Egyptian Muslim activist and television preacher. The New York Times Magazine, in reference to Khaled's popularity in Arab countries, described him in its April 30, 2006 issue as "the world's most famous and influential Muslim television preacher." Amr Khaled has...
. Webb was named one of the 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center in 2010. Webb's website, www.SuhaibWebb.com, was voted the best "Blog of the Year" by the 2009 Brass Crescent awards and his tweets won him the vote of "Best Muslim Tweeter" of 2010.