Zaytuna College held its inaugural classes Aug. 24 and
aims to become America's first four-year, accredited, Islamic institution of
higher learning.
Founded by three Muslim-American scholars, Zaytuna
focuses on renewing Islam's intellectual tradition while placing it in the
context of American society.
"As the years pass, the founding of Zaytuna College
will prove to be a milestone in bringing about both a sounder understanding of
Islam and better relations between Muslims and members of other faith
communities here in the United States - God willing," founder Zaid Shakir
said in a news release marking the college's opening.
Dustin Craun, a student from Colorado in Zaytuna's first
class, said the college will help Muslims navigate their role in the United
States.
"I think that we, as Muslims in America, have to figure
out how to learn what Islam is for us as Americans, and that is part of what
this institution is about," Craun said. The college is "about being
standard-bearers for the Muslims in this country."
Craun and the 14 other students in Zaytuna's initial
class can choose from two majors: Islamic law and theology or Arabic. The
school's founders expect some of them to become leaders of their communities as
imams or in other capacities. Omid Safi, a professor of Islamic studies at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said that would be an important
achievement because some foreign-born imams do not understand American culture
and society.
"Importing works great for carpets. It doesn't work
particularly great for imams in an American context, where they might need to
know just as much about marital counseling," Safi said. Future Muslim
religious leaders in America "are going to have to be completely up on the
world of Facebook and [teenage singer] Justin Bieber, just as they are on the
classical aspects of Islamic law."
Other U.S. colleges offer courses in Islamic studies, but
Hatem Bazian, the academic affairs chair and a co-founder of Zaytuna, said the
fledgling college takes another approach.
"At institutions that teach about Islam, it is
teaching from the outside looking in, and often it is from a deconstructing
approach," Bazian said. "We will be looking at Islam from within and
with a sense of not to seek to deconstruct, but how to take that valuable core
of the tradition and build upon it."
Other Americans have tried to launch Islamic colleges, in
Chicago and New York. Zaytuna College might have an advantage in that its
leadership is affiliated with well-established academic institutions. Bazian is
an adjunct professor of religious studies at St. Mary's College of California,
and co-founder Hamza Yusuf sits on the board of advisers for the Graduate
Theological Union in Berkeley, California.
Plans for Zaytuna include a campus of its own, but for
now its home is at the Graduate Theological Union, where it rents classroom
space from the American Baptist Seminary of the West. James Donahue, president
of the Graduate Theological Union, said Zaytuna promises to become a bridge for
understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims in America.
Bazian also envisions a role for Zaytuna as a bridge
between the United States and predominantly Muslim countries through exchanges
with academic institutions from across the global Muslim community.
"I think there is for the Muslim world now an
intellectual address in America where they could feel that they could engage
with this institution in conferences, in symposia, in exchanges that could take
place," he said. He added that Islamic scholars in other countries have
already expressed their interest.
Zaytuna is the fruit of more than a decade of efforts to
promote Islamic scholarship in America. It grew out of the Zaytuna Institute,
which Yusuf founded in 1996. Beginning in 2004, Shakir led a seminary program
at the institute to test the viability of a college, and the institute's Arabic
summer program has grown substantially over the past few years.
Application and enrollment procedures at Zaytuna mirror
those of other American colleges. Admission decisions take into consideration
grade-point averages, standardized tests and essays. Entering students must
have a basic level of proficiency in Arabic, the equivalent of one year of
university-level study.
Enrollment is open to people of all faiths.
"The first universities that were established in the
Muslim world, at that time they were open to all, and our principle is that
knowledge belongs to all of humanity," Bazian said.
Faculty positions at the college are fully staffed with
both men and women. Zaytuna administrators will be drafting job descriptions as
more teaching needs arise.
"Our job description would actually seek not only an
individual who is skilled in their particular field, but who has awareness and
an understanding of the Islamic intellectual contribution," Bazian said.
Bazian said Zaytuna has substantial challenges ahead.
Among them is accreditation, essential for college degrees to be officially
recognized in the United States. He said he is confident Zaytuna will receive
accreditation, but the process could take four to eight years.
"We feel that it is very critical for an institution
like ours, founded in the United States, to have the respect and the
recognition of other institutions of higher learning, for us to be
accredited," Bazian said.
Zaytuna, like well-established colleges, faces financial
hurdles. Once it begins to expand, financing will become more critical.
"Our goal is to have a permanent site, and that is
contingent on the financial resources and our fundraising projects and
programs," Bazian said. "We are hopeful and positive that the
Muslim-American community is forthcoming and will see this as their most
important strategic step in strengthening their community institutional
framework."
The college's initial endowment stands at $30 million for
the next four years while it seeks additional endowments for several chairs in
Islamic and Arabic studies. Also, Zaytuna aims to raise another $3 million to
$4 million to cover operational expenses.
Bazian has a timeline in mind for Zaytuna. It would have
its own permanent home in five to seven years and an enrollment of as many as
500 students in 10 years. As the student body grows, so would the academic
offerings, with new majors and a strong research unit.
College administrators expect to offer more courses on
Islamic jurisprudence and add studies of Shiite Islam.
Zaytuna might even compete with other colleges and
universities on an entirely different level.
"I don't know yet if we will be able to get a
football team, but I think a basketball team will be easily manageable in a
short period of time," Bazian said.
For Craun, Zaytuna represents another chapter in
America's rich cultural and spiritual heritage.
"These types of projects, in my opinion, deepen what
is beautiful about this country in terms of its diversity, in terms of its
acceptance and in terms of what we would hope would be a deep level of
tolerance," he said. "It can bring another level of thought, another
perspective, and another tradition to the myriad of opinions and understandings
of reality that exist in this country."
— M. Scott Bortot is a staff writer at www.america.gov