abdulhakeem
10-08-04, 10:35 PM
He's lived a diverse life. From strumming a guitar in a Malaysian nightclub to setting up the Gulf's first Bachelors' programme in Islamic education, Dennis Bradley Philips has journeyed a long and chequered path. Somewhere along the way, he shed his identity for a new ideology and name.
Known today as Dr. Bilal Philips, he was born to a Jamaican couple, lives in Sharjah and teaches Islam. "I had found my calling," he says.
That was in 1972. The last 30 years according to him has been well spent studying, teaching and practicing the principles of his newly acquired faith.
This week he crosses another milestone. The initiation of the region's first bachelors programme in Islamic Studies with an integrated English and Arabic syllabi, that will provide an Islamic perspective to subjects like economics and psychology at the Preston University in Ajman. Dr. Philips is tour de force and head of faculty.
"Most traditional programmes essentially begin with Arabic and introduce the Islam component much later. As a consequence, less than two per cent complete such courses," says the scholar whose conversion to Islam in his early 20s was instrumental in bringing him to the region.
"The idea just came up during my frequent meetings and discussions with the dean and within three weeks we worked out the details."
Though he alternates between here and his native Kingston, "this is where my heart and work is," he says, seated in his office at the Dar Al Fatah printing press in Sharjah, one hot summer afternoon.
The transition wasn't all easy. An itinerant childhood, followed by a groping-in-the dark adolescence and restlessness goaded him to search for some meaning in life.
Memories of those days do not distract the man nor falter him in his mission. Severing almost all ideological links with his past, today, he is best known through his writings and lectures, which aim to spread the message of Islam as it is, "not diluted by innovations and tainted by misbelief."
This is one of his greatest achievements. "But the high point came eight years ago when my parents, septuagenarians both, converted," says Dr. Bilal who studied at the Islamic University of Madina in Saudi Arabia and subsequently worked at the Saudi Arabian Air Force headquarters in Riyadh. Here, he addressed more than a million American troops and by the end of the Desert Storm operation, 3,000 converts left the Gulf with a new identity.
That number added to the hundreds who knock at the doors of his Islamic Information Society in Dubai, totals up to a neat number of converts. He declines from talking figures, but says instead, "It is a very personal search that drives people to us. We are only catalysts in the process by providing the knowledge and guidance. Most people who come this far, close all doors to their past."
Dr. Philips speaks from his own experience of a lifestyle change that the highly-strung crooner and guitarist underwent. "I used to perform in Canada and the Far East and was often nick-named Jimmy Hendrix," he recollects.
But he'd rather talk of here-and-now. The just-announced three year Bachelors programme is another step in the direction. "We sensed a growing demand from Arab Muslims and non-Muslims from America, Canada, Australia and the UK wanting to study theology at a Mid-Eastern university." And he has just the solution for them.
TUESDAY :24/09/2002
http://www.islamweb.net/php/php_arabic/readArt.php?lang=E&id=29435
Known today as Dr. Bilal Philips, he was born to a Jamaican couple, lives in Sharjah and teaches Islam. "I had found my calling," he says.
That was in 1972. The last 30 years according to him has been well spent studying, teaching and practicing the principles of his newly acquired faith.
This week he crosses another milestone. The initiation of the region's first bachelors programme in Islamic Studies with an integrated English and Arabic syllabi, that will provide an Islamic perspective to subjects like economics and psychology at the Preston University in Ajman. Dr. Philips is tour de force and head of faculty.
"Most traditional programmes essentially begin with Arabic and introduce the Islam component much later. As a consequence, less than two per cent complete such courses," says the scholar whose conversion to Islam in his early 20s was instrumental in bringing him to the region.
"The idea just came up during my frequent meetings and discussions with the dean and within three weeks we worked out the details."
Though he alternates between here and his native Kingston, "this is where my heart and work is," he says, seated in his office at the Dar Al Fatah printing press in Sharjah, one hot summer afternoon.
The transition wasn't all easy. An itinerant childhood, followed by a groping-in-the dark adolescence and restlessness goaded him to search for some meaning in life.
Memories of those days do not distract the man nor falter him in his mission. Severing almost all ideological links with his past, today, he is best known through his writings and lectures, which aim to spread the message of Islam as it is, "not diluted by innovations and tainted by misbelief."
This is one of his greatest achievements. "But the high point came eight years ago when my parents, septuagenarians both, converted," says Dr. Bilal who studied at the Islamic University of Madina in Saudi Arabia and subsequently worked at the Saudi Arabian Air Force headquarters in Riyadh. Here, he addressed more than a million American troops and by the end of the Desert Storm operation, 3,000 converts left the Gulf with a new identity.
That number added to the hundreds who knock at the doors of his Islamic Information Society in Dubai, totals up to a neat number of converts. He declines from talking figures, but says instead, "It is a very personal search that drives people to us. We are only catalysts in the process by providing the knowledge and guidance. Most people who come this far, close all doors to their past."
Dr. Philips speaks from his own experience of a lifestyle change that the highly-strung crooner and guitarist underwent. "I used to perform in Canada and the Far East and was often nick-named Jimmy Hendrix," he recollects.
But he'd rather talk of here-and-now. The just-announced three year Bachelors programme is another step in the direction. "We sensed a growing demand from Arab Muslims and non-Muslims from America, Canada, Australia and the UK wanting to study theology at a Mid-Eastern university." And he has just the solution for them.
TUESDAY :24/09/2002
http://www.islamweb.net/php/php_arabic/readArt.php?lang=E&id=29435