America’s first Islamic university now accredited

It added: “While Zaytuna has developed an exceptionally demanding undergraduate curriculum, its students enthusiastically embrace the distinctive character of this educational opportunity.”This is the crowning accomplishment of several years of struggle for recognition by Zaytuna, which I have chronicled copiously in this column since 2009.In a July 29, 2009 article titled: ‘An Islamic University in […]

It added: “While Zaytuna has developed an exceptionally demanding undergraduate curriculum, its students enthusiastically embrace the distinctive character of this educational opportunity.”
This is the crowning accomplishment of several years of struggle for recognition by Zaytuna, which I have chronicled copiously in this column since 2009.
In a July 29, 2009 article titled: ‘An Islamic University in America,’ I wrote: “From my experience, many young Muslims across the world have an ambivalent relationship with America. They love the progress America represents but resent what they regard as its anything-goes moral climate. They are awed by the creativity and vitality of its people but are outraged by the politics of its government. They are simultaneously seduced and repulsed by its raunchy popular culture. They admire the enviable quality of its education but are suspicious of the moral content of this education.
“To be sure, this ambivalence toward America in the Muslim world is not limited to young people. I know of many Nigerian Muslim parents who desire to send their children to the United States to drink from the fountain of its superior educational system but are concerned that the moral convictions they studiously cultivated in their children would be diluted, perhaps extirpated even, by the permissiveness of American campuses.
“That is why Malaysia has lately become a huge magnet for students from northern Nigeria seeking education outside the shores of their homeland. Well, this may all change. Inside Higher Ed, one of America’s top online news sources for post-secondary education, reported on May 20, 2009, that an American Muslim group has concluded plans to establish an Islamic university in America by 2010 at the earliest or by 2011 at the latest.
“Interestingly, the university, which will be named Zaytuna College, will be located in the city of Berkeley in the state of California, the same state that is host to Hollywood, the glitzy, licentious headquarters of the American film industry. Indicatively, its motto is: ‘Where Islam Meets America.’”
I concluded the article by pointing out that: “If Zaytuna is able to convince the authorities and ordinary Americans that it will not be a breeding ground for terrorism and anti-Americanism, it will break ground as one of only a few Islamic universities in the West. Most importantly, its establishment will be a significant symbolic balm to the strained relationship between America and the Muslim world and an added fillip to President Obama’s efforts to court the trust and friendship of Muslims.”
Again, on September 4, 2010, in an article titled:‘America’s First Islamic University Opens Amid Rising Islamophobia,’ I shared with readers news of Zaytuna’s opening of its doors to students on August 24, 2010.
I wrote: “The Berkeley, California-based Zaytuna College admitted 15 freshmen (that’s what Americans call first-year university students, irrespective of their gender) to study for bachelor’s degrees in one of its two majors: Arabic language and Islamic law and theology.
“However, although Zaytuna College has officially taken off, it is yet to be accredited. According to the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, which accredits degree-awarding institutions in western United States, it could take between four and eight years for the school to be accredited.
“Inside Higher Ed says the college will also seek the imprimatur of notable Islamic institutions all over the world. ‘We have looked forward to this day for many years, and are very pleased to welcome the first class of incoming freshman [sic] to Zaytuna,’ Hamza Yusuf, one of the school’s co-founders, said in a news release. ‘We have long desired to establish an institution that recognises the importance of shaping Islamic scholars and teachers that fully understand American culture.’”
In another October 9, 2010 article titled:‘Politics of Degree Accreditation in America,’ I wrote, among other things, that: “Zaytuna’s surest path to mainstream acceptance in the American society is to transform itself into a secular college with Islamic roots. It can have course offerings in Islamic studies, theology, the natural and social sciences, humanities, and so on but should avoid being an Islamic seminary. Well, the founders of the school say their vision is to make Zaytuna the American Muslim equivalent of such prestigious universities as Georgetown University, Catholic University of America, Loyola University, etc., which, though secular, have unabashedly Christian roots.”
Now that Zaytuna has been accredited, it can start to chart its course toward becoming the Muslim Georgetown University. Its students can now use their degrees to seek employment anywhere in America and apply for financial aid and government loans, which they couldn’t do when their school wasn’t accredited. Most importantly, students from all over the world can now apply for visas to come study at the university.
This is a momentous milestone both for the university and for America. Many people had thought that the college would not be accredited, not least because the school had been the object of a vicious campaign of calumny by the American conservative new media such as Fox News. It will be interesting to see how the school develops in America in this age when relations between Muslims and the West are at an all-time low ebb.