Sep 21, 2009 — See The Chronicle of Higher Education
Sheik Hamza Yusuf has made up a word to describe the kind of education he wants future students to gain at Zaytuna College. The word is "acadevotional," and he uses it to convey the college's goal: "We want academic rigor within a devotional context."... "It's utterly embarrassing to Muslims that there's not a viable Muslim seminary in America," says Omid Safi, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For that reason, some observers are surprised that Zaytuna is attempting to establish a whole college rather than just a seminary. "My sense is, where we are right now, we do need a seminary first," Mr. Safi says.
