Muslim university takes root in Berkeley, California

Zaytuna College aims to counter distrust of Islam by promoting a moderate, firmly American version of the religion.


Reuters November 23, 2010

BERKELEY: A pioneering US Muslim university has quietly opened in California, aiming to counter hatred and distrust for Islam by promoting a moderate, firmly American version of the religion.

Although the first class has just 15 students and occupies a rented office space blocks from the University of California campus, Zaytuna College aims to become the first accredited US Muslim university, an equal to academic giants with religious roots like Columbia University and Rutgers.

"Every religious community that comes to the US eventually reaches a level when they need to institutionalise to ensure their survival and our community is at that point," said Hamza Yusuf, a co-founder of Zaytuna College and a leading scholar of classical Islam in the West.

Debates are still raging over the appropriateness of a mosque near the New York site of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks, in what some analysts see as a clear sign of US scepticism of Islam. More than 30 per cent of Americans believe Islam promotes violence, and many argue the religion has no place in a Judeo-Christian country, a new Pew Research Center poll shows.

Zaytuna founders say the discrimination Muslims face in the United States is no different from what Catholics experienced in the 19th century or Jews in the 20th century, and it's only a matter of time before they are fully accepted.

"Education in general is one of the primary remedies for dealing with ignorance," said Hatem Bazian, academic affairs chair at Zaytuna College, who also teaches at the University of California at Berkeley. The four-year programme offers classes in Islamic literature, jurisprudence, theology and history and is open to all faiths, although all current students are Muslim, from a variety of backgrounds.

Aiming for the top

There are other US-based Muslim institutions of higher learning, but Zaytuna aims to be the first to get the accreditation that puts schools in the top tier of universities. On a recent day, five students were busy translating the Muwatta, a collection of writings on the Islamic jurisprudence from the Sunni school of thought.

Men and women shared the classroom, but the women stuck close together and all wore hijab, the traditional head covering. Sumaya Mehai, 21, came to the school after several years of frustrated study at a junior college. "I couldn't tie in my religious beliefs with what I was getting in the classroom," Mehai said. "Bringing religion into any discussion is usually discouraged at other schools."

There are an estimated six million Muslims in the United States, according to Pew, a growing community that today has more than 2,000 mosques and 500 schools around the country. Meanwhile, there is a shortage of imams and other community leaders, who often have to be sent from abroad. "The imams who are sent to the US are not prepared to address the issues they encounter here like drug use among teens or pregnancy or gangs," Bazian said. "It's like bringing them into a warzone."

Some graduates will become imams, while others will go on to work at Islamic cultural centers, schools, and mainstream hospitals and law firms, said Bazian, an American convert to Islam. He has been critical of both American and Islamic nations' foreign policy and has described Islamic countries as oppressive, earning criticism in the Arab world. Although some conservative bloggers have criticised the school as a "training ground for jihadists," the local Berkeley community, known for its leftist leanings, has been welcoming, Yusuf said.

Nationally too, Islamic scholars have praised the school for its progressive and moderate approach. "It's an attempt to bring the rigor of classical Islam and make sure it takes root in American soil," said Omid Safi, a professor of religious studies at the University of Carolina, Chapel Hill. "If successful, it will be yet another step to making Islam indigenous in this country."

COMMENTS (1)

Taimur | 13 years ago | Reply I think the founding of the Zaytuna College, a spin-off from Imam Hamza Yusuf Hanson's Zaytuna Instititue is an excellent initiative. Islamic scholars like Sheikh Hamza Yusuf and the Chair of the Islamic Studies at Cambridge University Sheikh Timothy Winter are an incredible source of pride for the current Muslims. They have with their superior I think a major problem that Muslims face today is that their traditional religious leadership cadre draws itself from the most underprivileged and intellectually weakest segments of society, which limits their understanding of religion. At the Ivy Muslim conference in Yale this year I was very fortunate to meet Sheikh Yasir Qadhi, an American of Pakistani origin pursuing his PHD in Islamic Studies after spending years in Saudi Arabia studying at the Islamic University of Madinah. He brought this point up multiple times suggesting young, intelligent and highly educated Muslims to take up the leadership mantle and bring a balance to the office of a Khateeb, who doesn't just wait for the neighborhood to bring him Qorma but is actually at the cutting edge of his worldly field. During past times Madrassahs were houses of great scientific discovery, such as the observatory in the Uluq Beg Madrassah. Similarly Ibrahim Muteferika - a Hungarian convert to Islam was an Islamic scholar and an inventor and brought the first printing press to the Muslim world by convincing the then Ottoman Caliph against the wishes of his Şeyhülislam. In fact in earlier times many Ottoman officials were both religious scholars and held other prominent positions in various facets of professional life - Haalet Effendi a diplomat in Europe sent by the Sultan for instance comes to mind. I am certain that Zaytuna College will be a step in the same direction!
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