OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF DR. BILAL PHILIPS
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Most Merciful
10 September, 2014
From Immigration Detention, Davao City
Mindanao, Philippines
Dear Friends, Students, and Supporters,
Salaam alaykum. Peace be upon you all.
I would first like to thank you for all your prayers and various positive expressions of care, concern and support. I’m happy to inform you that I am safe and well-treated in Davao City immigration custody, as my request for voluntary deportation is being processed.
Though I appreciate your rallies and demonstrations of support in Marawi City, Zamboanga and elsewhere, I advise you all to keep calm and not let your genuine expressions of support spiral out of control and degenerate into wanton destruction of property and the loss of life and limb.
Please allow the due process of law to take its course. The false allegations and misunderstandings circulating in the media will be tackled legally in order to clear my name and lift the ban on any future visits to the Philippines – God willing. There is sufficient evidence to prove my innocence in my hundreds of youtube video lectures and khutbahs (see my youtube channel: aabphilips), over 50 published books, many of which can be downloaded freely from my website: www.bilalphilips.com or www.kalamullah.com, or the hundreds of posts on my official facebook page: Dr. Bilal Philips, with almost 2 million likes.
As to my being on the no-fly black list of America, I join the ranks of Nelson Mandela who was put on it while he was in Robbin Island, and he remained on the list as president of South Africa until he won the Nobel Peace Prize for the same reason he was put on the list in the first place. Because of a narrow policy of the US and inhospitable atmosphere, I prefer not to go to US like one your local public official in Davao City who shunned going to the US for medical treatment. Not to mention the actual meaning of American label placed on me as an un-indicted co-conspirator in the 1993 attempted bombing of the World Trade Center. In normal language, “un-indicted” simply means “no charges have been filed against me due to lack of evidence”, and “co-conspirator” means “guilty by association”, that someone who the authorities arrested had my name in their telephone book, or they were seen shaking hands with me, or they prayed next to me in a mosque, etc.
Regarding the British 3-year ban, based on a statement taken out of context from a video program originally made in 1995 and rebroadcast along with my other programs continuously in Sharjah TV, UAE, since 2003, it has already been successfully demonstrated to Canadian Immigration authorities that I was misquoted. The ban in Australia follows the American lead blindly and the ban in Kenya also blindly follows the British ban. As for the German lifetime ban unilaterally issued by the Mayor of Frankfurt, it was thrown out of court in Germany last year. The Mayor’s appeal was also rejected by the higher courts, he was made to cover all court costs and the ban was lifted. I was not banned or deported from Bangladesh earlier this year as in commonly falsely reported. I entered the country and left on my own will.
Sensational journalism has also played a major role in demonizing me, like that of the daily newspaper which plastered a picture of me on their front page, Sept. 10th issue, with the heading “Suspected Terrorist Arrested”. The related article contained a series of irresponsible, inflammatory and inaccurate statements from PRO 11 Regional Director Chief Superintendent Wendy G. Rosario. Superintendent Rosario was quoted as saying that I was considered a person of interest because of alleged links to a terrorist group outside the country. I have never had any links nor have I ever been accused of having links to any terrorist group. Superintendent Rosario further stated that I was invited for questioning by the police while lecturing in a mosque which is inaccurate, as I did not lecture in any mosque in Davao, my lecture on “Raising Righteous Children” was a public lecture in the Sunny Point Hotel auditorium attended by Muslims and non-Muslims. He then stated that I was prevented from lecturing in Zamboanga scheduled for the 4 and 5th (correctly the 5th and 6th) which is untrue. I personally decided not to go to Zamboanga when the Mayor of Zamboanga withdrew her support by cancelling the venue and her provision of government security forces. She also requested the Department of Justice to prevent me from coming there. The organizers in Zamboanga requested me to come anyway, assuring security from ex-generals from their ranks, but I thought it prudent not to go since the mayor was personally opposed. He then stated that the Bureau of Immigration issued a blacklist order against me on the 4th September, also untrue. They issued the order on the 5th at the request of the Mayor of Zamboanga, and I arrived in the country on the 4th. He then mentioned that there was a report that I was already blacklisted while failing to mention that the previous blacklisting was lifted by the government. Such irresponsible sensational journalism has been identified by the UK government’s Runymede Report as a major source of Islamophobia. I trust and pray that the majority of the people of the Philippines will not tolerate such attitude.
It is very sad that lecturers and speakers like myself who call to Islamic moderation and oppose extremism, terrorism, indiscriminate violence and revolt, are blocked from conveying this peaceful message to Muslim minority communities. We recognize that extremism is a product of ignorance of true Islamic teachings so we promote in our lectures the acquisition of correct knowledge and the practice of Islam’s authentic teachings. In banning and demonizing us, they have created a vacuum of information which continues to be exploited and filled by extremist elements who easily recruit youthful impressionable followers with emotional messages to their savage, violent and merciless unIslamic methodologies and ideologies.
I have always been a proponent of peaceful solutions to our problems as you all know, the motto of my university (Islamic Online University.com) is “Changing the Nation Through Education”. Please be an active part of this prophetic methodology for change by joining the ranks of over 180,000 registered students in my university, most of whom are studying free of any charge in the free Islamic Studies Diploma program.
Peace be upon you all.
Dr. Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips
Chancellor, Islamic Online University
#Culture1 month ago
Ibn Ibraheem
September 13, 2014 at 4:21 PM
May Allah Bless Abu Ameenah Dr Bilal Philips and his family.
This man is truly great. He has spent most of his adult inviting people to the Oneness of God. He has done much charitable work. Anyone that works tirelessly for the truth gets a lot of hostility. And Allah has tested him a lot.
I used to live in Dubai. He had setup an Islamic Center there that preached the Oneness of Allah and Islam. He was even told to leave Dubai by the authorities as he spoke against against the banking, drinking of alcohol, clubbing and prostitution that went on and still goes on in Dubai.
Those who had lived in Dubai know that those activities are a big part of the tourism industry there and the authorities didn’t like it, so they asked him to leave.
His lectures used to come on Sharjah TV and it was through his lectures (by the Grace of God) that I understood what Tawheed (Oneness of God) is. Before this my beliefs were full of shirk (associating partners with God)
All the mosques there would give the Friday Sermon in Arabic. I didn’t speak Arabic, along with so many other foreigners living there.
Bilal Philips arranged for the first mosque there to be giving Friday sermon in English.
He was also the first islamic speaker that I encountered that explained the wisdom behind the rituals performed in Islam.
I love this man. I had the pleasure of meeting him a couple of years ago in Abu Huraira mosque in Toronto. He had come to Canada to renew his passport, but the authorities were delaying it.
May Allah provide relief for him and his family and to all people of the world that are treated unjustly.
I ask Allah to open doors for all the people of the world who are oppressed. And May Allah save us from being an oppressor, whether to our wives, kids, families, friends, co workers or people we come across in our everyday dealings.
O H
September 13, 2014 at 5:30 PM
“And they resented them not except because they believed in Allah , the Exalted in Might, the Praiseworthy”
The issue of Haqq vs baatil will continue till day of judgement but the end belongs to the mu’mineen.
Defender
September 13, 2014 at 8:42 PM
It is not surprising that the western media is after you and falsely placing allegations on you. May Allah secure you and make your affairs easy. Ameen.
ummi
September 14, 2014 at 10:43 PM
Alhamdolillah ,May Allah protect him & those who has sincere intention to do good. Jazakallah khair for releasing your side of story . It is quite disheartening to see our teachers demonized ,yet we call Allah for help.
Abdul Aziz
September 15, 2014 at 2:12 AM
The (ulamaa) Islamic teachers and scholars are the inheritors of the Prophets. None of the prophets had it easy during their dispensation. May Allah Grant All our Ulamaas the Inner strength of the (Anbiyaa) prophets to be able to endure all the persecutions , prosecutions ,blackmail ,allegations.Ameen
Ismail
September 15, 2014 at 10:13 AM
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) mentioned in a Hadith about a decline in authentic Islamic scholars when the Qiyamah is near. I think now we all understand how this has come to be. May Allah give him strength and steadfastness to persevere.
H
September 16, 2014 at 1:23 PM
Alhumdullialh! He was obviously doing great work for people to want to silence him by such illegitimate means. His enemies couldn’t intellectually defeat him, so they just resorted to draconian strategies instead. You’ll often find that extremely potent da’ees find themselves in similar situations – so you could say that this is sort of a medal to those that are extremely effective. May Allah make it easy for him.
Muslim
September 16, 2014 at 6:25 PM
May Allah ease things for you br.and give sabr to your family. Allah is with you, when your on Haqq …world has problems with that…thats our barometer!
hassan
September 17, 2014 at 9:21 AM
May Allah continue to bless and protect our noble sheikh Bilal from the misguided mayor and haters of the religion of peace.
Mahmud Amin
September 21, 2014 at 3:25 AM
He may not able to come to the philippines but his books surely do..Allahu Akbar!
Deen Islam
September 24, 2014 at 1:48 PM
Assalamu lay kum Sh. Phillips, I am a Volunteer Guest Liaison from The Deen Show. I was asked to invite you to do a Skype interview for the show. Please see the message section for the message I sent you for more details. I pray that Allah (SWA) Most High, Most Merciful, Most Generous. will bring ease to you and remove you from this “blacklist” permanently (Ameen) .and Peace and Blessings on Muhammad (SAW) (Ameen) I pray that I hear from you soon. (Ameen)
Aly Balagamwala
September 25, 2014 at 2:35 AM
Dear Brother/Sister:
We do not have any way to get your message to the Shaykh. Please contact him through his Facebook page or Twitter.
JazakAllahu Khairin
Aly
CommentsTeam Lead
Yahya Abbie
September 26, 2014 at 5:59 AM
may Allah the mighty grant u much patient as u are going through this my Sheikh!!
Tosikul Alam
October 10, 2014 at 5:18 PM
I was an unguided young guy searching for truth. And I came to know this man and then the University founded by him. And I enrolled into the free diploma programme. As I continue I realize the truth. This man may Allah have mercy on him really changed my thinking and of course my life.
Usamah Carman
October 11, 2014 at 5:09 PM
As A former Atheist, I would never have come to Islam without hearing this brother! He has suffered from nationalism as well as a weak Ummah that has aloud brothers like himself to be treated like common criminals. Although I ascribe to the Salafi methodology, too many of us have chosen that which appeals to our cowardice. I could go on on this matter, but I will not choosing to say may Allah protect our brother and return him to the work that he does better than any other caller to the Deen. Amin
Muhammad Betz
March 24, 2015 at 4:34 PM
Assalamu alaikum,
I met Dr. Bilal Philips when I studied Arabic at King Saud University in Riyadh, KSA, in 1990-1991. He was a kind and open person, who impressed me for being a voice of reason and moderation. He had a great family and circle of English speaking friends from the US, England, South Africa. I can’t help but think that the above political difficulties are the result of overreaching, understudied, politicos trying to make a name for themselves as anti-Islamists.
After returning to the US in 1991, I have gone on to become Professor Emeritus (retired) in Teacher Education from Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant, OK. I now reside in Richardson, TX, and I am working in the field of Islamic Education, with Muslim youngsters, who are patriotic Americans and future Muslim leaders in the US.
I send my best wishes to Dr. Bilal and his family, and May Allah the Almighty accept the best of efforts, which I know, have been conducted with honest, noble, and peaceful intentions.
Sincerely,
Muhammad Betz
Carlos hakim
September 6, 2015 at 6:23 AM
Salam,my brother bilal waallahi most of the countries banned you is not the people’s but few people’s who hate Islam so bad I know that you are great passion and compassion Muslim scholar and the best mashaallah in English language!!!!! Life is too short please stay tune to ur deen waallahi next one is the best fear none but Allah,they the haters plan and Allah is the best planner amen ! No matter where you go there is and are always brothers and sisters there for you! Wassallamo aliekom
Inshallah next time we Puerto Ricans will invites you smile Carlos hakim love& respect and prayers for you porvida my brother bilal keep the good works and plz plz plz plz keep putting weekly lectures on YouTube.
Imtiaz Umarji
March 6, 2016 at 5:58 AM
I would like to receive your email updates
Aly Balagamwala
March 8, 2016 at 1:24 AM
Please subscribe to our newsletter at http://muslimmatters.org/subscribe-muslimmatters-biweekly-newsletter/
Adam Abba Aja
August 14, 2016 at 1:38 PM
may Allah the almighty continue to protect our teacher in IOU http://WWW.IOU.edu.gm may Allah reward him.
Fazeel Saeed
November 14, 2016 at 9:55 PM
Dear Ustaz, Allah judges people by heart. Insha Allah you live a very simple life but with a lot of knowledge inside you, by the grace of Allah. I pray to Allah that He would grant you Jannah without hisaab(reckoning).
I am a witness that you have never instructed anyone to follow violence and destruction. You have always advised us to be kind and generous to all, including Muslims and non-Muslims and that is the advice of Prophet Mohamed(Pbuh).
MEER SAHIB
June 22, 2018 at 1:18 PM
I am a Canadian, professional engineer of the Province of Ontario, and am proud of Sheikh Bilal. I had the pleasure of hosting a lunch in honour of Sh.Bilal at my residence in Jubail al-Sinaiyah, Saudi Arabia.
Sh. Bilal is a great scholar, who always taught peace, forgiveness, and patience.
Many American soldiers accepted Islam from Sh.Bilal and Sh.Deedad during the invasion of the Gulf.
May Allah shower His choicest blessings on sh.Bilal and his family and his companions.
Meer Sahib P.Eng.