US: 1st Muslim college plans grand opening
College founded by Muslim cleric to open in Berkley this year, seek accreditation amid 'Ground Zero mosque' debate
As US voters debate the opening of the Ground Zero mosque, the first Muslim college plans to open its doors this academic year, the Daily Beast website reported Thursday.
Zaytuna College, located in the college town of Berkley, California, is set to be the first accredited institute of higher education in the US that defines itself as Muslim.
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The report says the college hopes to function similarly to other religious seminaries, such as the Catholic Notre Dame.
With ideals of reconciling between Islam and American culture, the vice president of administrations and operations at Zaytuna College, Omar Nawaf, says the college will help Muslim assimilate in the US.
Nawaf told the news site that the curriculum includes humanities and social sciences as well as Islamic studies and Arabic.
The college, which was founded by the one of the US's most highly respected Muslim cleric, Hamza Yusuf, has not yet stirred up a public debates the likes of those caused by the community center set to be built near the site of the World Trade Center in New York, but debates such as these are expected by its establishers.
The mosque has become a central issue in the Congress election campaigns after President Barack Obama said he believes Muslims have the right to build the center, though he's also said he won't take a position on whether they should actually build it.
From Zaytuna College website
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