Adnan Ibrahim

Adnan Ibrahim was born and brought up in a refugee camp in Gaza/Palestine. He later moved to Yugoslavia and studied medicine in Sarajevo.[http://derstandard.at/2741078 Wiener Imam erneut mit Extremismus-Vorwürfen konfrontiert], Der Standard, Jan. 25, 2007. In the 1990s he moved to Vienna because of the Bosnian War,Raphael Israeli, The Islamic Challenge in Europe, New Brunswick NJ, 2009), p. 139. where he became Imam of the Shura mosque in Leopoldstadt in 2002.[http://www.news.at/a/neue-extremismus-vorwuerfe-wiener-imam-aufruf-heiligen-krieg-162569 Neue Extremismus-Vorwürfe: Wiener Imam bestreitet Aufruf zum "Heiligen Krieg"], NEWS, Jan. 24, 2007.Tom Heneghan, "Vienna Imam Says Yes to Europe, No to 'Euro-Islam'", interview with Sheikh Adnan Ibrahim, Reuters, April 12, 2006. He holds Austrian citizenship.[http://derstandard.at/2763926 Der "Hassprediger"], Der Standard, May 15, 2007.

His preaching in Arabic reaches a wide audience through digital media.Nadia Oweidat, [http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/26/opinion/oweidat-arab-social-media/ On Web: Islamic Spring vs. ISIS?], CNN, American edition, September 30, 2014: "while his sermons are sometimes delivered to just a few dozen followers in a small mosque in Vienna, hundreds of thousands of people are watching and downloading his sermons over the Internet."

According to Raphael Israeli, "After the London bombings in 2005, he issued a fatwa saying Muslims who hear of plans for a terrorist attack must report them to the police immediately."Raphael Israeli, The Islamic Challenge in Europe (Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick NJ, 2009), p. 140. He has preached and lectured against female genital mutilation.Sabine Strasser, "Political Activism and Anthropology in Austria", in Taking Sides: Ethics, Politics, and Fieldwork in Anthropology, edited by Heidi Armbruster and Anna Lærke (Berghahn Books, 2008), p. 190.

File:د._البوطى_يتوسط_الإعلامى_أيمن_وهدان_.._و_د._عدنان_إبراهيم_و_د._محمود_عبده.jpg

Ibrahim is one of the most controversial Muslim scholars. Conservative Muslims, especially Wahhabies, consider him as misguided and as having incorrect views about Islam and accuse him of spreading "sedition" in the Muslim community.[https://www.alrased.net/main/articles.aspx?selected_article_no=7326 "من دعاة الفتنة والضلال في عصرنا -5- عدنان إبراهيم" (in Arabic)

Some even went as far as calling him "Kaffir" and "Rafidi" (although he's publicly Sunni).[https://www.islamancient.com/testwp/%D9%85%D8%A7-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D9%88%D9%84-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%B9%D8%AF%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A5%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%87%D9%8A%D9%85%D8%8C-%D9%88%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%B2%D8%B9%D9%85%D9%87-%D8%A3%D9%86-%D8%B9/ ما القول في عدنان إبراهيم، وفي زعمه أن عيسى –عليه السلام- لن ينزل في آخر الزمان؟] (in Arabic)

He also has been accused of trying to change Islam to fit the Western agenda. These controversies are mostly due to his following an Islamic modernism approach and rejection to some points in Islam regarding women's rights and what he considers as "violence."

In 2007 Austrian media described him as a controversial figure: liberal in theology and opposing terrorism in Europe, his preaching on Middle Eastern politics has praised anti-Israeli militants and led to accusations of supporting Hamas against Israel.[http://oe1.orf.at/artikel/210279 Der Islam in Österreich: Wie vorbildlich ist die Integration?], Ö1, May 16, 2007. Called an "enlightened and reforming imam by one commentator, particularly with regard to women's issues," in 2014 he again reportedly preached in support of Hamas, although the accuracy of the translation was called into question.[http://diepresse.com/home/panorama/wien/3867018/Wahrer-Jihad_Wiener-Imam-lobt-Hamas "'Wahrer Jihad': Wiener Imam lobt Hamas"], Die Presse, Sept. 8, 2014.

During a speech at the Strasbourg Islamic center, a video of which was posted on the internet in January 2011 (as translated by MEMRI), Ibrahim claimed that Nicolaus Copernicus had actually stolen ideas from the Arab Islamic astronomer Abu Al-Hasan Ibn Al-Shatir, he is not the only scholar to suggest this.N. Guessoum, [http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2008Obs...128..231G Copernicus and Ibn Al-Shatir: Does the Copernican Revolution have Islamic Roots?], The Observatory 128 (2008), pp. 231-239. Ibrahim claimed that "a Polish prime minister" when on a visit to Syria, supposedly admitted this to the president Hafez al-Assad. He also claimed that other western scientists, including Galileo Galilei, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, and Leonardo da Vinci were actually "thieves...who robbed the Islamic heritage, which was kept in the darkness of church crypts for over 200 years."Ibrahim also claimed that Muslim scientist Baha Al-Amili had developed a formula for "perpetual energy" and created lighting in a mosque in the city of Isfahan that burned indefinitely without any energy source.[https://www.memri.org/tv/archival-vienna-imam-copernicus-galileo-kepler-and-da-vinci-were-thieves-who-robbed-islamic], MEMRITV, Clip No. 4992 (transcript), January 6, 2011 (video clip [https://www.memri.org/tv/archival-vienna-imam-copernicus-galileo-kepler-and-da-vinci-were-thieves-who-robbed-islamic]).{{better source needed|date=February 2017}}

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• YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/shaikhAdnanIbrahim Arabic YouTube channel

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Category:1966 births

Category:Living people

Category:University of Vienna alumni

Category:Austrian imams

Category:Muslim critics of atheism

Category:Muslim reformers

Category:21st-century Muslim scholars of Islam

Category:Palestinian emigrants to Austria

Category:Theistic evolutionists