Title:
Muslim College Opens in US With Hopes -- and
Suspicions
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Education Report.
See text below
Text:
Zaytuna College is a new four-year college in
Berkeley, California. Zaytuna is seeking to become
the first accredited Muslim college in the United
States. The name comes from the Arabic word for
olives.The process of full accreditation could take
several years. That will make it easier for students
to get financial aid, and to have their education
recognized by employers and other schools.Zaytuna
held its first classes this summer -- intensive
study of Arabic to prepare for classes in the fall.
Men and women sat on opposite sides of the
auditorium. Most of the men had beards and wore
skull caps. Most of the women covered their hair
with scarves. Zaytuna currently offers two majors, a
choice of Islamic law and religion or Arabic
language. General education classes include American
history, anthropology, philosophy, literature and
political science.Imam Zaid Shakir is a professor
and co-founder of Zaytuna. He was born in Berkeley.
The college website says he accepted Islam in
nineteen seventy-seven while serving in the United
States Air Force. Imam Shakir says he wants teachers
who are trained and educated in the United States
and who understand American society. There are
millions of American Muslims. But the imam says most
of the teachers of Islam in America received their
training in other countries. He says Islam has never
become rooted in any land until that land had its
own Islamic scholars. Michael Higgins studies the
relationship between religion and higher education.
The United States has many different religious
colleges. But he says he fears there could be
protests if Zaytuna College is seen as teaching
students not to accept other religions. This
September eleventh will be nine years since the
al-Qaida terrorist attacks on the United States.
Imam Shakir recognizes that those attacks and other
plots since then have fed public suspicions about
Islam.But he says opponents of the college represent
a minority opinion in the United States. He says
they are reacting to a small group of extremists --
a "lunatic fringe" -- in the Islamic community. He
said: "And I think this is why Zaytuna College is so
important. If we prove ourselves, even those more
vocal critics will be silenced. It's up to us; the
ball is in our court."And that's the VOA Special
English Education Report.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
