Former self-described bad boy street gangster Imam Suhaib Webb says, though he still loves hip-hop, he has changed his tune since his edgy younger days. And now, he is a “deeply educated Koranic scholar” and founder of Center DC, a faith-based community group geared to the young Muslims of Washington D.C.
The imam has quite a healthy on-line presence with 100,000 followers on Twitter and 230,000 on Facebook. On Snapchat, Webb gets roughly 20,000 daily views featuring 10-second prose poems which combine his insight on both Islamic law and hip hop culture. In one Snapchat, he’s wearing a flat-billed Kangol hat as he speaks about arranged marriage.
According to the Washington Post, “Webb aims to make classical Islam relevant to modern Americans and to help a hate-addled world see that, if the prophet Muhammad were alive today, he’d be politically in sync with Bernie Sanders.”
For the imam, Trump is a reason to read Islamic history more closely. “You need to stand up against persecution, for what is right and just. Think of Rick in ‘The Walking Dead,’ of the way he wakes up in the hospital. We can wake up like that and speak out against white male privilege in this country. We have the collective power to propel causes like Black Lives Matter. We can make a huge difference.”
