Forget about a mosque Muslim community center... we should all be concerned about a whole college run by Muslims and imparting degrees in Islam and Arabic... scary!

Anybody been following this or even know about it? They just started their inaugural classes a couple of weeks ago!

Quote :

"Inaugural Convocation of Zaytuna College, Berkeley, CA given by James A. Donahue, Ph.D., President and Professor of Ethics, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. "

Listen to it on their official site: http://www.zaytunacollege.org/give/convocation

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaytuna_College

Good read:
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/22/california-school-aims-to-be-countrys-first-accredited-muslim-college/

What do I think? It is great... and I wish Muslim and Arab countries would let Christians set up their own colleges. For some such countries, even a church would be something completely new, or even freedom to practice one's religion without fear and persecution, which is sad.

I wonder how I would feel if I was born and brought up as a Christian in the US... I mean, I grew up in Saudi Arabia, but somehow I believe in the freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and freedom of religion (especially more so since my rights to those freedoms have been threatened several times by many people), but for some reason I feel that had I been brought up as a [practising] Christian in the US, I would be scared of this college and would be cynical about the intentions of the founders.

So who on here has misgivings about this college (or completely opposes it?)?

P.S. Also a good read, and highlights some great irony:

http://www.religionnews.com/index.php?/rnstext/nations_first_muslim_college_opens_in_california

Quote :

"The college will be housed at the American Baptist Seminary of the West for five years until founders can establish its own campus."

9/7/2010 8:55:07 PM

I don't suppose I could get a minority scholarship...

9/7/2010 9:00:35 PM

Who cares? I'm more afraid of Bob Jones University than this place. From what I read in the 2 minutes I researched online, sounds like it's still really small (15 students in the first class) and moderate (8 of them are women).

9/7/2010 9:08:36 PM

so, do they have advanced suicide bombing classes or something?

9/7/2010 10:35:19 PM

Meh. We have Christian Colleges and Churches. I don't give a rats ass about a Muslim College or mosque/Community Center/whatever the hell you want to call it.

9/7/2010 10:43:05 PM

Heard about it on NPR this morning. I don't see anything wrong with it. If anything, they have every right to. As the reporter noted this morning, Catholics have Notre Dame, Protestants have schools like Wheaton, so why can't Muslims have their own university?

9/8/2010 2:52:33 PM

Berkeley. Figures.

9/8/2010 4:37:29 PM

As others have said, not much different from any of the christian/theology schools we have now.

On the other hand, this:

Quote :

""The college will be housed at the American Baptist Seminary of the West for five years until founders can establish its own campus.""

is awesome, if only for it being symbolic of the cooperative peace all religions should ascribe to.

9/8/2010 7:16:30 PM

Quote :

"for some reason I feel that had I been brought up as a [practising] Christian in the US, I would be scared of this college and would be cynical about the intentions of the founders."

*Shrug* I guess if you feel like you would also be born stupid or something. I was brought up as a Christian in the US and I could give two shits. If you're up to no good, you don't go to college to learn how to do it. I don't think anyone's going to this place to learn how to spread Sharia or bomb things any more than I think people go to Bob Jones for advanced classes in white-sheet eyehole repair or cross burning 101.

To be honest, I have some misgivings about any place of higher education having a religious bent, unless of course its purpose is to train clergy. My buddies who went to law school at Campbell didn't describe a theocratic institution or anything, but some of the little details seem like they would've irked me. Then again, I'm biased against private school in general so maybe that's it.

9/8/2010 7:35:14 PM

I'm pretty genuinely surprised that this is the first. There are so many K-12 Islamic schools in the US I just kinda assumed that an Islamic college had to be somewhere.

In other words, as a Christian my reaction to this is "meh".

9/8/2010 9:22:13 PM

How religious of an institution will this be? Are we talking something very mild like Duke University or something extreme where it affects the quality of the instruction like Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, or somewhere in between (maybe like Belmont Abbey College)? Whats the best parallel?

[Edited on September 8, 2010 at 10:26 PM. Reason : .]

9/8/2010 10:24:45 PM

Quote :

"Meh. We have Christian Colleges and Churches. I don't give a rats ass about a Muslim College or mosque/Community Center/whatever the hell you want to call it."

Quote :

"Who cares? I'm more afraid of Bob Jones University than this place."

Quote :

"I guess if you feel [worried about it] you would also be born stupid or something"

these.

9/8/2010 10:41:42 PM

The Koran makes it pretty clear that Jews and Christians are a bunch of assholes who deny God's final revelation. Polytheists and atheists, meanwhile, are destined for a great fire "whose fuel is men and stones."

If it doesn't bother you that so many young minds are indoctrinated with this tribal, superstitious tripe, then I suppose you would be all for madrassas in the United States.

[Edited on September 8, 2010 at 10:57 PM. Reason : ]

9/8/2010 10:56:59 PM

^ See, this is a large part of the problem right here. People who don't seem to understand the difference between not giving a rat's ass about something and supporting that same thing.

I'm not hurt by them starting a Madrasah Islamiyyah based on Islamic principles, just as I'm not affected by people starting a Madrasah diniyyah based on Mormon, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, or any other religious principles out there.

I'd greatly prefer that all higher education be secular in nature, just because certain strong religious sentiments can get in the way of the scientific process (particularly in the case of those fearful of the scientific process), but we can't all have what we want in life.

9/9/2010 9:27:00 AM

Quote :

"If it doesn't bother you that so many young minds are indoctrinated with this tribal, superstitious tripe, then I suppose you would be all for madrassas in the United States."

I hope you are equally against Bob Jones "University" and BYU.

9/9/2010 9:41:44 AM

Quote :

"People who don't seem to understand the difference between not giving a rat's ass about something and supporting that same thing."

As I said, "if it doesn't bother you," then so be it. It bothers me, so I'm going to say so.

Quote :

"I hope you are equally against Bob Jones "University" and BYU."

To the extent that they preach their respective crackpot religions as if they were true, yes, absolutely.

9/9/2010 9:44:53 AM

^ why do you hate the First Amendment. Why do you hate America? Why do you hate Freedom?

9/9/2010 4:07:29 PM

People are welcome to practice whatever false religion they please and we are equally welcome to criticize them for it.

9/9/2010 4:21:35 PM

What is their mascot going to be? The Zaytuna Tunas?

9/9/2010 5:12:21 PM