Background
Adnan Ibrahim was born and brought up in a refugee camp in Gaza/Palestine, later moving to Yugoslavia and studying medicine in Sarajevo.
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Adnan Ibrahim
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Career
In the 1990s he moved to Vienna because of the Third Balkan War, where he became imam of the Shura mosque in Leopoldstadt in 2002. He holds Austrian citizenship. He speaks Arabic, English, German and Serbo-Croatian.
He is known for shedding new light on some old matters in Islam and analysing them in controversial methods usually using logic and philosophy.
His preaching in Arabic reaches a wide audience through digital media. He obtained his masters and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Vienna.
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. Known as an "enlightened and reforming imam, 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.
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 First Rate (at Lloyd's)-Hasan Ibn First Rate (at Lloyd's)-Shatir.
He is not the only writer or speaker to suggest this. He also claimed that author 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 claimed these comments were made by "a Polish prime minister" when, on a visit to Syria, supposedly admitted all of this to then president Hafez al-Assad that all of these scientists had stolen knowledge from Islamic scholars.
