Suhaib Webb is an American Muslim imam who is currently the imam of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center
News Desk
Shaykh Suhaib Webb is a contemporary American Muslim activist and speaker. After converting to Islam, Webb left his career as a DJ and studied at the University of Central Oklahoma, where he graduated with a Bachelors degree in Education. He also studied privately under a Senegalese Shaykh, learning enough Islam and Arabic to become a community leader in Oklahoma City, where he was hired as Imam at the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City.
He simultaneously started teaching at Mercy School, an Islamic K-12 school in Oklahoma City. In 2004, he departed with his wife and children to Cairo, where he currently studies at Al-Azhar University in the College of Shari`ah. Additionally, he is in charge of the English translation Department at Dar al-Ifta al-Masriyah and is currently training as a Mufti. Webb strongly advocates for an articulation of American Islam that is authentic, and has leaders that are acutely aware of the issues facing Muslim Americans.
Apart from his studies, he frequently lectures in the United States and Malaysia, and records public lecture series on Islam and contemporary Muslim matters. After graduating from Al-Azhar, he moved to Santa Clara in the San Francisco Bay area, where he worked with the bay area Muslim American Society Office & Muslim Community Association. 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.
According to a strategy report by the UK government, senior UK government officials, including representatives of nine of the biggest Whitehall departments, consider Webb as a notable moderate leader for mainstream Muslims along with the likes of Hamza Yusuf and Amr Khaled that should receive more support in providing leadership to Muslims in the West.
Webb was named one of the 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in 2010. Webb's website, 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.
In the April 2016 issue of Dabiq Magazine, ISIL declared him a murtadd (or apostate).
Webb joined a trip of imams to Auschwitz in 2010, followed by a public statement to condemning Holocaust-denial and anti-Semitism. He helped raise $20,000 for widows and children of firefighters killed in the 9/11 attack. He is a part of efforts to more effectively rebut militants and religious extremists and is an advocate for grassroots Muslim activism to promote social change. He advocates for an American-style Islam, one which he claims to be true to the Quran and Islamic law but that reflects this country's customs and culture.
He has spoken out against radical clerics that seek to prey on insecure youth and their American identities, stating that "We do have to shepherd them and look out for people like al-Awlaki who tries to undermine that (U.S.) experience and use it against them."
Following the Boston Marathon bombings, Webb condemned the acts as radical and joined with interfaith clergy to pray that "we continue to live in harmony, honoring and celebrating our similarities and differences, working together for the common good."
On April 19, 2013, Webb was replaced as the representative of Boston’s Muslim community to the interfaith service honoring the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross by Governor Deval Patrick's office for undisclosed reasons. Webb still attended in the pews along with several other prominent imams. Webb was replaced by Nasser Wedaddy, director of civil rights outreach for the American Islamic Congress and chair of the New England Interfaith Council.
