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Converts Plan Islamic College in Berkeley

Renown converts lead effort to reinterpret Islam

By Ambreen Ali, Newser User

Posted Jun 3, 2009 3:45 PM CDT

(Newser) – Two superstars of American Islam are at the helm of what they hope will be the nation’s first accredited Islamic college, tasked with creating scholars who can usher a religious renewal. Hamza Yusuf and Zaid Shakir, both converts, aim to admit Zaytuna College’s first class next year in Berkeley, Calif., immersing students in modern culture as they seek traditional training, the East Bay Express reports.

Yusuf, billed as the “Elvis Presley of Western Muslims,” says the world has too many “half-baked weekend muftis calling for jihad after looking up its meaning on Google.” Islam doesn’t have the scholars needed to adapt traditional doctrine to the modern day, he contends. That converts are leading this reform is no surprise, Shakir notes, since they “tend to be zealous.”

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Zaid Shakir is photographed at the offices of Zaytuna Institute in Berkeley, Calif., the organization he runs with Hamza Yusuf. (AP Photo)

Shakir, pictured here, and Yusuf are both converts to Islam who say the religion lacks scholars to lead a renewal of Islamic scholarship. (AP Photo)

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We are trying to present Islam as an organized whole. That makes it more difficult to distort, harder to use in less-than-productive ways. - Zaid Shakir, co-founder of Zaytuna College

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 4 comments

Shannonals

Jun 7, 2009 7:56 AM CDT

Ignorance of religion astounds me. Being a Muslim does not make you a terrorist, and as such even making jokes reflects why relations are so terrible.

Observer

Jun 4, 2009 12:53 PM CDT

Undercover Feds will be the first students. Allah Akbar!

doingtherightthing

Jun 4, 2009 1:47 AM CDT

Muslim school for terrorists. The religion that keeps on killing. First period: kill all Jews, second period: kill all Christians, third period: kill all atheists, fourth period: target practice, fifth period: eating Kurds, sixth period: bomb making and seventh period: market shopping for practice. That should make a full day of rousing studies at that Berkeley campus. "Abdula's University of Mocking Americans Arab style" or "Arab Studies for the killing field in America"!

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Islam • American Muslims • Berkeley • religious school • Zaytuna College • Hamza Yusuf • Zaid Shakir

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Converts Plan Islamic College in Berkeley