Dr. Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips was raised in Toronto and converted to Islam in 1972. He was born in Kingston, Jamaica. His life’s work has been characterized by his desire to learn about and teach Islam in order to “Change the Muslim Nation via Islamic Education.”
He first earned a B.A. from the Islamic University of Medina’s College of Islamic Disciplines in 1979, followed by an M.A. in aqeedah (Islamic Theology) from King Saud University in Riyadh in 1985, and finally a PhD in Islamic Theology from the University of Wales in 1989. (1994). The Exorcist Tradition in Islam was the topic of His PhD thesis, which is interesting.
Dr. Bilal spent ten years teaching Islamic studies in an Islamic high school in Riyadh following his graduation from the University of Medina, and another ten years lecturing in Arabic and Islamic studies at the American University in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
He established Dubai’s first Islamic Information Center in 1994. He was the founder and the head of the English-medium Islamic studies department at Knowledge International University in Riyadh, the College of Da’wah and Islamic Culture (English Section) at Omdurman Islamic University in Sudan, the College of Da’wah and Islamic Culture (Arabic Section) at Preston University-Ajman in the United Arab Emirates, and the founder and head of Preston International University.
But arguably his greatest accomplishment—and the reason he was included in the list of “The 500 Most Influential Muslims” in Jordan—is the historic foundation of the Islamic Online University, which has more than 80,000 students enrolled from every nation on earth after only five years of operation. IOU makes it possible for anyone from wherever in the world to acquire an Islamic education for free, unlike the other educational initiatives he developed and managed throughout the years.