First Accredited Islamic College Planned for US

June 7, 2009

Author: Riazat Butt

Source: The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/07/islamic-college-us-zaytuna-institute

The first accredited Islamic college in the US is being planned by an influential Muslim body hoping to produce "a generation of indigenised scholars".

The management committee from the Zaytuna Institute, which is dedicated to classical Muslim scholarship, last week recommended launching Zaytuna College in autumn 2010. The board of trustees is expected to vote on it later this month.

The college would be open to men, women, Muslims and non-Muslims, and would be on a level comparable to the best religious seminaries and higher education institutions in the US, the brochure says.

The initiative, described as a "Muslim Georgetown", is backed by widely respected Islamic scholars and clerics across the world, who argue there is a need for institutions that can wed religious texts to a contemporary context.