Peace train: Hatem Bazian, Ph.D. '02, is a Berkeley lecturer and Zaytuna officer who sees opportunity in the growing Bay Area interest in Islamic studies.

Back in 1962, when the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) was founded in Berkeley's Northside neighborhood, the idea of Protestant and Catholic seminaries working together was thought to be a daring ecumenical experiment. Now, recognizing that Islam has woven itself into the multicolored fabric of religion in the United States, GTU has embarked on what could be its most daring initiative yet—an interfaith campaign that promises to make Berkeley a mecca for serious Muslim scholarship.

Over the last five years, enrollment in classes on Muslim faith and culture has risen steadily at the University as well as at the GTU, which just over one year ago founded a new Center for Islamic Studies. This makes Islam the latest religion to establish itself on "Holy Hill," that climb just north of the Cal campus. Meanwhile, the innovative Zaytuna Institute opened its doors in downtown Berkeley with the goal of ultimately transforming itself into a world-class Islamic university. Program leaders at all three schools say they are committed to helping a new generation of Muslim leaders get a classical Islamic education and the skills and scholarship they need to function in puzzling, spiritually diverse places such as the San Francisco Bay Area.

At this point, the three centers now operating in Berkeley are largely working independently. Students at the seminaries take classes at Cal and work with faculty advisors there to broaden the theological education received on Holy Hill. Both the GTU and Cal offer graduate degrees, but only the seminaries hand out ministerial credentials. Zaytuna at present offers only courses and not a degree but has already sponsored conferences jointly with the University and the GTU's Center for Islamic Studies. Officials at all three schools are now considering other ways they can cooperate. But there are some hurdles to overcome.

Most of the nine member schools of the GTU—whether Catholic or Protestant—take a relatively liberal approach to the study of theology. Islam does not seem to have the same tradition of progressive theological scholarship, however. In an interview in his office overlooking the San Francisco Bay, GTU President Jim Donahue acknowledged the potential challenges involved in opening the consortium's doors to "passionate believers" of any religion. "In academia," he said, "you have to be willing to submit your truth claims to wider scrutiny. That's what makes an educational institute different. We are not a grassroots religious organization. We don't sit around singing 'Kumbaya.' There are academic and intellectual standards."

"We're not starting a madrasah," Donahue said.

Madrasahs—Islamic schools—have gotten a bad rap since the events of September 11, 2001, when the nation's attention focused on extremist schools operating in Pakistan and elsewhere in the Muslim world. That reputation suffered further when it was learned that John Walker Lindh, a young Marin County man who joined forces with the Taliban, studied at a madrasah in Pakistan before his infamous, ill-fated journey into Afghanistan. Madrasah is simply the Arabic world for "school." Just as in the United States, which hosts institutions as diverse as Bob Jones University and the University of California, Berkeley, Islamic schools and colleges come in all shapes and sizes and encompass all sorts of political and theological perspectives.

Yet Munir Jiwa, the founding director of the GTU's new Center for Islamic Studies, acknowledges that the Islamic world does not have the same tradition of modern scriptural criticism. Most Muslim scholars, he said, see little need to question the historicity of the Koran or critically examine the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. "Islamic studies scholars have not really taken that up," he said. "Is it because it is taboo? Is it because they fear they would be killed? What are the reasons? Well, there are a whole host of reasons. Maybe it is just not that interesting. There is the question of why does the Koran have to be pushed through [Judeo-Christian] Biblical lenses?"

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