“Suhaib Webb is the imam of the ISBCC. What do we know about him? He looks like an American.”
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SUHAIB WEBB, Imam of IBSCC; Founder of Ella Collins Institute
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,[4] 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....
From 2004-2010, Suhaib Webb studied at the worlds preeminent Islamic institution of learning, Al-Azhar University [MAS scholarship], 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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suhaib_Webb
From the Institute web site http://ellacollinsinstitute.org/:
In 2009 his website www.suhaibwebb.com won the Brass Crescents best Blog of the Year award. [ and receives close to 1 million hits per month] http://isbcc.org/imamsuhaib/
He was named by the British Government as a Moderate Muslim leader and was named one of the top 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center 2010-2012.
He currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts, where he serves as the Imam of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center [IBSCC] and is the FOUNDER and an instructor at Ella Collins Institute of Islamic and Cultural studies.
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Webb was introduced to Islam at 19. He was selling music tapes at a swap meet when he met a Muslim man selling incense and handing out Korans. Webb took one home and read it in secret for several months.
He converted during his freshman year at the University of Central Oklahoma and broke the news to his parents at Thanksgiving dinner that year when his mother had cooked a turkey and a ham, the latter forbidden by Islam....
In college, Webb met Asma Ayoub, a Muslim Malaysian immigrant who was studying anthropology. They married in 2000 and have two children. Webb calls his wife his “greatest teacher.”
As he worked toward his bachelor’s degree in education, he also studied intensively with a local Muslim scholar. He later became imam of the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City before moving to Santa Clara in 2002 at the behest of the Muslim American Society [MAS} there.
The group [MAS] sponsored Webb’s formal Islamic education at Cairo’s Al-Azhar. He returned to the Bay Area full time last summer. [2010]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2725890/posts
When did Webb move to Boston?
He made the relocation announcement to his Bay Area mosque during Ramadan [Aug] 2011.
http://bayareamosques.blogspot.com/2012/08/islamic-society-of-boston-cultural.html
On December 1, 2011, Webb was inaugurated as the Imam of the Islamic Society of Boston’s Cultural Center (ISBCC), the largest Islamic center in New England
http://isbcc.org/imamsuhaib/
Ella Collins Institute address
Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center
100 Malcolm X Boulevard
Roxbury, MA 02120
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The ISBCC is the largest Islamic center in New England, and the second largest on the East Coast. The 70,000 square foot building stands tall on Malcolm X Boulevard in the heart of Boston, a Muslim handprint on the city skyline. The cornerstone of the New England Muslim community. The ISBCC is not just a mosque, but is also planned to house a school (by 2013) [Ella Collins Institute???], a library, an interfaith center, an exhibition space and a morgue.
Every Muslim neighborhood in the greater Boston area has had a hand in its construction, and its leadership reflects the full diversity of our community. The two-decade effort to build the ISBCC has brought together Muslims, the Roxbury community, the city of Boston and the leaders of other faith groups. Mayor Thomas Menino, State Senator Dianne Wilkerson and City Councilor Chuck Turner have all publicly announced their support for the ISBCC.
http://www.salatomatic.com/d/Roxbury-Crossing+12640+Islamic-Society-of-Boston-Cultural-Center
Salatomatic.com boasts of being “the worlds most comprehensive guide to mosques and Islamic schools”
VIDEOS by Suhaib Webb:
http://www.halaltube.com/suhaib-webb
http://web.archive.org/liveweb/http://www.marcmanley.com/2012-ella-collins-winter-retreat/ [this 3-min video announcing a conference gives a glimpse of his style and personality]
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* Suhaib-—the modern, moderate, popular imam whose goal is to propagate American-style Islam
From a 2011 LA Times puff piece (long but worthwhile read):
“At the pulpit of an inner-city Chicago mosque, the tall blond imam begins preaching in his customary fashion, touching on the Los Angeles Lakers victory the night before, his own gang involvement as a teenager, a TV soap opera and then the Day of Judgment.
“Yesterday we watched the best of seven.... Unfortunately we forget the big final; it’s like that show ‘One Life to Live,’ “ Imam Suhaib Webb says as sleepy boys and young men come to attention in the back rows. “There’s no overtime, bro.”
“The sermon is typical of Webb, a charismatic Oklahoma-born convert to Islam with a growing following among American Muslims, especially the young. He sprinkles his public addresses with as many pop culture references as Koranic verses and sayings from the prophet. He says it helps him connect with his mainly U.S.-born flock.
“Are we going to reach them with an Arab message or with a Pakistani message? Or are we going to reach them with an American message?” asks Webb, 38, of Santa Clara....
” Although the call to prayer at a mosque is always issued by a man, Webb once joked about it being made by one of his favorite female R&B artists: “If Mary J. Blige made the call to prayer, I’d go to the mosque; I’d be in the front row.”
At a Muslim conference in Long Beach last year, he suggested that mosques adopt a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward gays. Afterward, he was accosted by a local imam who accused him of poisoning Muslim youth. “I told him, ‘Quite frankly, you’re going to be irrelevant in 10 years,’ “ Webb says.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2725890/posts
BUT, on a YouTube video, Webb says gays “are cursed.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaoKv1zRkjA
“Muslims should fight against gay marriage by any means necessary. Imam runs the Islamic Society connected to the Boston bombers, regularly preaches in the mosque they attended.”
http://talk.baltimoresun.com/showthread.php?330344-Boston-mosque-Imam-Suhaib-Webb-says-gays-are-cursed&s=0b56b2f8736356c40f513a5d85cb2751
* Suhaib Webb-—the RADICAL JIHADIST???
09/09/01
According to FBI surveillance documents, 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 Browns defense. Brown was found guilty of the murders.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suhaib_Webb
http://www.shameonneu.com/images/fbi_webb_awlaki.pdf
The day after 09/11/01, Webb was included in an article citing incidences of a backlash against Muslims.
09/12/01: Arab-Americans, Muslims report backlash
Muslims in Oklahoma City said motorists made obscene gestures outside the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City, said Suhaib Webb, imam of the center’s mosque.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/arab-americans-muslims-report-backlash?siteid=mktw
In 2004, Suaib Webb...moved with his wife and children to Cairo, where he studied at Al-Azhar Islamic University. He is employed by Muslim American Society.
[MAS financed his education at Al-Azhar]
http://ztruth.typepad.com/ztruth/islam-in-oklahoma.html
2/18/11: Suhaib Webb’s “virtual mosque” praised Yusef Qaradawi’s book on jihad as a masterpiece!
http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=21082
[Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a mosque trustee and Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader banned from the U.S. after issuing a fatwa that OK’d killing U.S. soldiers.]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3012796/posts
Webb endorses the MAS curriculum
“We have obtained a Muslim Brotherhood indoctrination curriculum taught by the MAS and endorsed by Imam Suhaib Webb for indoctrination of Bostons young Muslims. The curriculum teaches vicious hatred and calls for young Muslims to engage in Jihad against non-Muslims in order to establish a global Islamic state.”
http://peaceandtolerance.org/index.php/2012-07-26-13-33-42/islamic-extremism-at-northeastern/boston-marathon-bombing-update/139-did-radical-islamic-leadership-in-boston-influence-marathon-bombers
After the 4/15/13 Boston Bombing:
“The imam of the ISB Cultural Center, Suhaib Webb, made a public statement condemning the Boston bombing but he also tried to preempt any examination of the connection between the mosque’s history of Islamist connections and the Boston bomber by saying: This will open the door to the Islamophobic industry, an industry of ill-educated bigots, to attack Muslim communities.
http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/boston-bombers-mosque-has-muslim-brotherhood-ties?ModPagespeed=noscript
From: Islamic Society of Boston [mailto:XXXXXXXX@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, April 22, 2013 3:43 PM
To: XXXXXXXX@masboston.org
Subject: [boston-net] Fwd: lawyers
Assalamu Alaikum brothers and sisters,
We have been informed that the FBI may be starting to question some of the community members about the two suspects. Insha’Allah we want to help as much as we can, but of course not put ourselves at risk either. Seeking representation does not imply any guilt on your part but is simply a way of protecting your own rights. Please do not hesitate to use the information listed below or contact the ISB Cambridge Mosque for any other resources.
Jazak Allah Khair
Islamic Society of Boston
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/04/25/IslamicSociety-Email-ACLU
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3012451/posts