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Education

Will America’s First Muslim College Serve as a Bridge Between Islamic Culture and Western Values?

Feb. 5, 2013 8:59am Billy Hallowell

Zaytuna College is likely unfamiliar to most Americans, as it is a small, Islamic higher education institute that was founded quite recently. Described as the nation’s “first Muslim college,” Zaytuna, located in Berkeley, Calif., seeks to mesh Islamic values with Western educational tenets. While the school currently has only 31 students and is renting space from a Baptist seminary, it plans to have its own campus next year — an expansive act that showcases the potential growth and trajectory of the emerging school.

On its web site, Zaytuna’s purpose is clearly highlighted as educating and equipping Muslim students to embark on a journey in the modern era. Noting that the Islamic population is growing in the West, the school believes that there are a number of challenges facing Muslim-Americans, particularly when it comes to integrating Islamic and Western cultures.

This Is Zaytuna College: Americas First Muslim Liberal Arts College

Photo Credit: Zaytuna College/Facebook

The college further explains these sentiments on its web site:

Islam has never become rooted in a particular land until that land began producing its own religious scholars. There are several million Muslims in the United States and rapidly growing Muslim populations in Canada, Great Britain, and Western Europe. Yet, there are no accredited academic institutions capable of training students in the varied sciences of Islam, while also instilling in them a sophisticated understanding of the intellectual history and culture of the West. Clearly, there is an essential need for Muslim institutions that can wed Islam’s classical texts with the contemporary context.

This reality has led to two lamentable situations. First, there are very few Muslim scholars who can meet the religious and pastoral needs of a rapidly expanding Muslim community in the West. Second, much of our younger generation has become alienated from the mosque and from religious culture.

To satisfy its educational goals, Zaytuna College pledges to continue its growth, while modeling itself as an institution that will rival some of America’s best religious seminaries and general educational facilities. Students participate in a curriculum that is described as “rigorous,” with classes in Islamic Studies, Arabic, humanities and the social sciences. The notion is that graduating students will become “scholars who understand the specific needs of contemporary societies.”

Advancing its goal of offering Muslims the opportunity to better learn and understand “Islam’s critical role in the modern world,” Zaytuna currently offers two majors: Islamic Law & Theology and Arabic Language (full course listings for the programs are available at the aforementioned links).

As far as cultural awareness goes, the school believes it can be a bridge to assist in what it calls the “indigenization of Islam in the West.” This is code for cultural understanding and the adopting — or, at the least, the understanding — of the two cultures by one another. An explanation on the college’s web site points to the general notion that Muslims are “outsiders” in America, something Zaytuna is attempting to temper and rectify.

“God willing, a Zaytuna College education will prepare students for a meaningful life as compassionate, productive, and educated citizens of the global community who understand Islam as a living, viable, and relevant faith, and who represent that faith with dignity, wisdom, and honor,” the web site continues.

A recent Al Jazeera report has more about the school’s goals, along with student testimonials:

While the college is not currently accredited, officials are working toward that goal, with hopes of reaching it by the time the first graduating class accepts diplomas in 2014.

Learn more about Zaytuna College on the school’s web site.

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Comments (147)

denkat56
Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:43am
Go back to Muslim land and take the boy king Obama with you.

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- Locked
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 10:01am
  “Will America’s First Muslim College Serve as a Bridge Between Islamic Culture and Western Values?”
  
  If the comments here like Denkat56′s are any indication, I’m going to go with “Nope!”
  
  Report this comment
- mikem1969
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 10:07am
  amen to that. This will be a breeding ground for terrorist recruits and terrorist training.
  
  Report this comment
- walnutportconservative
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 10:19am
  Obama was never a boy scout, and he wants to make suggestions as to how the BSA should be run?
  If Obama took that idealogy to a Muslim Nation… Behind doors he would be kissed, and in public… stoned.
  They are liers as is our president.
  
  Report this comment
- kryptonite
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 10:27am
  Say, WALNUT, we ain’t got a president. We stopped at 43.
  
  Report this comment
- mikelivi
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 11:22am
  We have got to be the dumbest people on earth! We are letting the enemy live, learn and prosper behind enemy lines (the USA) wake up folks, the ******* dont want to be friends they want all of us to convert to the “religion” of murder or they want us dead. They want nothing else, its way past time we as a country woke up. Thanks to king obama and people like him, they are winning! Our country is almost lost forever, its not to late though…..
  
  Report this comment
- THERAPTURCOMES
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 11:47am
  Only the ignorant and the stupid think the two cultures can mix. Once a Muslim population is sufficient they start the take over process of the host country
  
  The truth is, a war is about to break out that will be between Muslims and Israel that will bring about the anti christ. They are Isaiah 17:1 & Isaiah 19 in the process of being fulfilled before the worlds eyes and these two lead into Zech 12 and Psalm 83
  
  The resurrection/rapture is at the door believe while you still can http://youtu.be/ahEVxIzlxwo
  
  Romans 10:9-10 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
  
  10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
  
  Report this comment
- sonofgalt
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 1:47pm
  islamic higher education means studying the 1500s ?
  
  Report this comment
- KURT1010
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 2:09pm
  Ditto ! Send these people back, most of us donot want them or the illegals…illegal means illegal, if I do something wrong , get a ticket or thrown in Jail…let them go back to their own countries since they hate us so much….getting tired of this crap…
  
  Report this comment
- TonyFox
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 2:23pm
  Right on, we do not need these people in our country this is the USA not some backward country who are still living under ROCKS.
  
  Report this comment
- Alaskaninfidel
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 3:29pm
  Like letting cancer in to your body to create better dialogue tweenst the two.
  You don’t engage cancer except to destroy it.
  
  Report this comment
- Walkabout
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 6:00pm
  Locked
  
  How come the oldest mosque in America in Cedar Rapids, Iowa is not the site of Muslim University?
  
  There is more action inn the jihadi mosques of NYC than, the older one in Iowa. It kind of tells me which way they want to go.
  
  Report this comment
- db321
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 10:11pm
  This University will certainly be a Bridge for Students from Heaven straight to Hell. Your Choice! The Bible has no problem with people making their own choices to ether reject or except the true Lord and savor Jesus Christ.
  
  People line up all day to visit an empty tomb that Jesus borrowed for 3 days.
  This University will show you photos of the grave that Mohammed is still in.
  Jesus died so those that believe can get to Heaven
  Mohammed wants you to kill someone in order to get a few Virgins and Wine.
  
  It your choice!
  
  Report this comment
- KURT1010
  Posted on February 6, 2013 at 6:36am
  Berkley Ca says it all !
  
  Report this comment
shogun459
Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:39am
A Bridgehead.

We will now have a Madrassa to inspire and train new anti-western anti-American jihadies Right Here at home!

Well done bring the poison into our heartland.

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- turkey13
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:48am
  “The philopsophy of the classroom will be the philosophy of government tomorrow.” – Abraham Lincoln
  
  Report this comment
- kryptonite
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 10:25am
  More cultural jihad.
  
  Teach your daughters and granddaughters to run if one of those animals approaches them. They want to multiply in our land like rats, and they need American wombs to do it.
  
  Report this comment
- glassaudioguy
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:22pm
  @Kryptonite- there was a made for TV movie back in the late 70s starring Sally Fields titled “Not Without My Daughter.” It’s about an American woman married to an Iranian who wants to “visit” Iran just after the Shah was deposed in 78. Once there she and her daughter live worse than slaves but are finally smuggled out by some sympathetic people. It’s available on amazon.com and would be about as good a story to convince our girls not to fall in love with a Muslim.
  
  Report this comment
- kryptonite
  Posted on February 6, 2013 at 2:34am
  @GLASSAUDIOGUY
  Wow, just a few days ago a female relative and I got to talking about that movie! I said the woman was lucky she was able to escape Iran. If I recall correctly, the Islamist revolution was still in its infancy. Nowadays, it would be impossible. The regime is too powerful, and besides the whole ME is being Islamized thanks to Hussein.
  
  Under the Bush administration the State Department website had a travel warning for women taking their children to visit their husband’s Muslim home country. It’s been scrubbed by Hussein, of course. Now it’s generic and deals with the broad topic of international abduction.
  
  I agree it’s a compelling movie, but we need to treat cultural jihad like we do drugs and unwanted pregnancies. Our girls need to learn the truth about Islam, ’cause they sure ain’t going to hear it from their teachers or the media.
  
  Report this comment
Tigress1
Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:38am
Will it be a bridge between the two cultures? Probably not. It will probably crank out a few more radicals who will end up being terrorists.
However, will Christians be able to attend? What if they attend and oppose the Muslim religious symbols that are around campus and the daily prayers? After all, Muslims found Christian symbols “offensive” in Christian universities around the country!

http://answersforthefaith.com/2011/10/27/muslim-students-complain-about-christian-symbols-and-discrimination-at-catholic-university/

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- turkey13
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:53am
  Boy – Berkely will be ticked in 10 years when the rich Muslims of the world build a new school and take all the students away from them.
  
  Report this comment
poorrichard09
Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:37am
A bridge to islam is a bridge to nowhere for America!

They will allow Jews and Christians to attend in the name of diversity, correct? And the GLBT crowd?
Will co-eds wear burkhas?

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- Desertcatn
  Posted on February 6, 2013 at 11:40am
  Yeah, first Al Gore sells the gay community out to Al Jazeera and now a madrassa in Berkeley. Meanwhile the gay community is worried about getting into the Boy Scouts . . . Talk about priorities, lol!
  
  Report this comment
Tri-ox
Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:37am
Are these muslim graduates of the first-ever ‘mosque Police Academy’ part of obama’s ‘Civilian National Security Force’?

http://www.barenakedislam.com/2013/02/05/are-these-muslim-graduates-of-the-first-ever-mosque-police-academy-part-of-barack-hussein-obamas-civilian-national-security-force/

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wordweaver
Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:32am
Brick by brick, the country known as America is being dismantled. Few will take notice until it is too late. It is all being done in the name of “tolerance”. They who stand for nothing will fall for anything.

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- sjpru
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:40am
  ….in a word…no.
  
  Report this comment
- woodyee
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:40am
  “They who stand for nothing will fall for anything.”
  
  So true.
  
  Report this comment
- fastgunslinger
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 2:48pm
  get rid of the ragheads be forewe have the same problem we have with the wetbacks
  
  Report this comment
Zipit
Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:31am
I hear that music/singing will be part of the basic requirement for graduation!!! LALALALALALALALALALALAL!!!!!!!

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- Anonymous T. Irrelevant
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:58am
  What kind of degree from this place will get them what kind of job? Which parents would waste their money sending a kid to this place?
  
  Report this comment
- Lloyd Drako
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 10:54am
  Apparently, students will get degrees in “Islamic Law and Theology,” which presumably will qualify them to be clerics and/or scholars of Sharia. There is great demand for such among America’s growing Muslim population. I suppose it’s better for them to be homegrown than imported from Whereveristan.
  
  Report this comment
biohazard23
Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:26am
Students may wish to record their IED/homicide vest class from a safe distance as the hands-on demonstration will only take place once….

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am123
Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:26am
Some of the courses in their curriculum:

“SUICIDE BOMBING 101”
“HOW TO FLY PLANES” (no taking off or landing instructions)
“HOW TO KILL INFIDELS DANIEL PEARL STYLE”
“ROADSIDE IEDs 101”
“KILLING ALL THE JEWS ON THE PLANET, EVEN THOSE HIDING BEHIND ROCKS”

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woodyee
Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:22am
Someday in the near future, those same “blasphemous” Baptists, renting out school room to Muslims, will have their throats sliced open, by one of that Muslim schools’ graduates.

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- YourVoiceMatters
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:43am
  You know all the warm and fuzzies they (the Baptists/religionists /nominal christianists) feel now will be nothing compared to the aftermath! It is just another way to get a foothold to control the country. There are none so blind as those who WILL not see! Boy they must have had one feel good moment to sell out their country! If they only took the time and read about the muslim religion before they opened their door to them! Not a shadow of a doubt we are in the last of the last days! The great falling away has begun!
  
  Report this comment
- momrules
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 10:08am
  Woodyee and Yourvoicematters……….I agree with both of you. Yes, I believe we are in the last days and I believe Islam will be an arm of Antichrist.
  
  Report this comment
- momrules
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 10:19am
  Have you seen this?
  
  http://caircapac.org/california-muslim-community-makes-political-history-28-muslim-delegates-elected-to-california-democratic-party/
  
  Report this comment
- kryptonite
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 10:38am
  @WOODYEE
  A sobering thought, isn’t it? They call themselves Christians, but they aid and abet Satan’s end-time kingdom.
  
  Report this comment
- Dismayed Veteran
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 12:26pm
  Baptist seminary!!!!!
  
  I am Catholic and thought Baptists were strictly Bible based. Why are they letting the enemy of Christianity use their seminary?
  
  Report this comment
- CathyvanDyke
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 8:25pm
  Muslim prayer room opens in Catholic high school
  Monday, September 17, 2012 01:34 PM EDT
  http://www.torontosun.com/2012/09/17/muslim-prayer-room-opens-in-catholic-high-school
  
  Report this comment
progressiveslayer
Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:20am
This Muslim college is just another link in the chain to create a global caliphate,nothing more nothing less.

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Tri-ox
Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:19am
Just another terrorist training center.

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- sheik
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:27am
  The mental terror is worse than the bombs.
  
  “there are no accredited academic institutions capable of training students in the varied sciences of Islam”—
  
  Of course not, because there aren’t any “Islamic sciences”– this desert cult of sexual deviants makes tall claims but has nothing to show for.
  
  All they have done in 1400 years is destroy far better cultures and civilisations than their own, murdered their men and enslaved and raped their women and children.
  
  Islam delende est.
  
  Report this comment
- Bub47
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 4:35pm
  Kriptonite: Not so. Read up on the Ottoman empire. That being said, the Western cultures of today are more like the Ottomans of the past while the Muslim countries of today are the savages.
  
  Report this comment
- kryptonite
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 6:16pm
  BUB47
  Kriptonite: Not so.
  —
  Could be, but you forgot to point out what is not so. :))
  
  Report this comment
TimKan7719
Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:18am
Sweet will they offer classes on bomb making, women beating as well????

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BlackCrow
Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:16am
Explosive vest 101, Jihad for beginners, The positive aspects of enslaving little girls, the list is endless.

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willingtoupe
Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:16am
The Contribution of the Great African Slave Trade also has to be addressed big time and incorporated as a part of their historic curriculum.

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AUsername
Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:13am
If Christian colleges can Muslims colleges can.

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- Fubared
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:27am
  Tool.
  
  Report this comment
- Charbet
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:38am
  Sure, you can have all the islam schools you want, in the ME. BTW, I’m a white Christian woman, can I attend your school?
  
  Report this comment
- AUsername
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:56am
  it took christians time to accept other people and the time could speed up for some of the muslims if your troops were not there killing their people and invading their country.
  
  Report this comment
- Zipit
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 10:09am
  Poor little ABUSERNAME! Are you offended by some of our comments? WAH! You Christian meenies you!!!!
  
  Report this comment
- AUsername
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 10:23am
  No i am just saying you folks are no different than they are.
  
  Report this comment
- Anonymous T. Irrelevant
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 10:37am
  In what way AUSERNAME?
  
  Report this comment
- Zipit
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 10:51am
  ABUSER! That was a real “head in the sand” statement!
  
  Report this comment
ozchambers
Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:13am
I thought cultural bridges were a violation of Islamic law.

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- kryptonite
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 10:48am
  Absolutely not. They are the MO during the infiltration stage.
  
  Report this comment
SpankDaMonkey
Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:13am
.
I bet Bomb Vest & IED Bulding 1001 is full and has a waiting list…..

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- Gonzo
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:21am
  Those are advanced classes Monkey. They have to pass Basic Rock Throwing 101 before moving on to bigger things.
  
  Report this comment
- Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:35am
  To get their PhD’s, they have to explain and demonstrate the concept of “Deodorant Use and Application”.
  
  Report this comment
- kryptonite
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 3:18pm
  GONZO
  They have to pass Basic Rock Throwing 101 before moving on to bigger things.
  —–
  Like goats? PETA will have a fit.
  
  Report this comment
DougHuffman
Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:12am
Will America’s only Constitutional conservative college Serve as a Bridge Between conservative and post-modern lack of values? http://www.hillsdale.edu/

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Gonzo
Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:12am
There is no desire to build a bridge to Western culture in Islam…only a desire to subjugate it.

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BladerunnerKC
Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:11am
“While the college is not currently accredited”
No, just another infiltration.

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momrules
Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:08am
There can never be a meshing of Islam with any other culture. Islam’s goal is to destroy all cultures except their own and we see that in every country they have invaded since the beginning of the cult.

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- naughtycal
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:16am
  Exactly these liberal do8ches are so in denial of the nature of islam that they can’t even call the enemy Islamic terrorist. Which is what the y are a terrorist ideology based on their interpetetion of the koran
  
  Report this comment
- kdshell1
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:19am
  Amen. Islam is diametrically opposed to western values, and any “meshing” or “merging” would destroy western, God-centered values. Satan seeks to supplant God, not “mesh” with Him.
  
  Report this comment
willingtoupe
Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:07am
I think it’s awesome. Heck we have Catholic Colleges, which allows non Catholics and non Christians in. I just hope they do the same to let non Muslims in. It all makes sense. Why not, especially since we already have historically Black Colleges. It’s only fair.

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- woodyee
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:26am
  Just how many non-Muslims do you think will want to attend a Muslim college, let alone one without accreditation?
  
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- Fubared
  Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:30am
  How will OSHA come down on the whole vest engineering thingy and the one way pilot’s course? Who will stand in for the stoning class and bearded female beating class? Berkeley is close by, so there you go. No loss. No gain, no boom.
  
  Report this comment
biohazard23
Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:06am
“Islamic Law and Theology”. Gee, what could possibly go wrong here?

Why not just call it what it really is, a madrasah?

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Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on February 5, 2013 at 9:01am
Uhhhhhhhhh………No.

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