b. 1947 · Qatar · Islamic studies teacher, author, founder of the Islamic Online University
Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips was born Dennis Bradley Philips in Kingston, Jamaica, on 17 July 1947 and grew up partly in Toronto. He studied biochemistry at Simon Fraser University, became a Muslim in 1972, and went on to take a bachelor’s degree at the Islamic University of Madinah (1979), a master’s in theology (aqida) at King Saud University, Riyadh (1985), and a doctorate at the University of Wales, Lampeter, with a 1993 thesis on exorcism in Islam.
He taught Islamic studies in Riyadh and Dubai, ran Islamic information programmes in the Gulf and later in Qatar, and founded the Islamic Online University in 2001; he is also founder and chancellor of the International Open University. He has authored, translated or commented on dozens of books, many issued by the International Islamic Publishing House in Riyadh and available in many languages.
His own books are mainly textbook-style introductions to creed (aqida), the sources of tafsir and hadith, the history of Islamic law, and questions of pilgrimage and family law, plus works for non-Muslim readers on Jesus and the concept of God. He has been described as a Salafi. His public career has been marked by controversy, and he has been banned from entering several countries.