Bilal Philips

Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips
Philips in August 2010
Born	Dennis Bradley Philips
Era	Modern
Occupation	Islamic preacher
Religion	Islam
Denomination	Sunni
Movement	Salafi movement
Notable idea(s)	founder of Islamic Online University
Alma mater	B.A. - Islamic University of Medina M.A. - King Saud University Ph.D. - University of Wales
Website	www.bilalphilips.com

Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips, born Dennis Bradley Philips, is a Canadian Muslim teacher, speaker, and author who lives in Qatar. He appears on Peace TV, which is a 24-hour Islamic satellite TV channel. He considers himself a Salafi who advocates a traditional, literal form of Islam.

Philips had encountered Islam several times in his travels, but the book that won him over was Islam, The Misunderstood Religion by Muhammad Qutb, the younger brother of Sayyid Qutb.

He received his B.A. degree from the Islamic University of Medina and his M.A. in ʿAqīdah (Islamic Theology) from the King Saud University in Riyadh, then to the University of Wales, St. David's University College (now University of Wales, Trinity Saint David). There at the Lampeter Campus he completed his 1993 PhD thesis, Exorcism in Islam.

Philips founded the Islamic Online University in Qatar. On his website Philips writes that distant learning is becoming an effective tool by which ordinary Muslims may learn their faith.

Philips came under criticism in Britain for seeming to condone suicide bombers. He said of suicide bombing: "When you look at the mind of the suicide bomber, it's a different intention altogether ... The [enemy] is either too heavily armed, or they don't have the type of equipment that can deal with it, so the only other option they have is to try to get some people amongst them and then explode the charges that they have to try to destroy the equipment and to save the lives of their comrades. So this is not really considered to be suicide in the true sense. This is a military action and human lives are sacrificed in that military action. This is really the bottom line for it and that's how we should look at it."

Philips also said that there is no such thing as rape in marriage. He argued that a woman is obliged to give herself to her husband and that the husband may not be charged with rape.