With all the election-year nonsense being spouted about the Islamic Cultural Center in New York, I thought it interesting to see the emergence of another cultural influence on the other coast. This fall, Zaytuna College is opening its doors as a small, faith-based institution in the San Francisco Area. Faculty hope to assist students to integrate faith and learning, the curriculum includes intentional spiritual formation, and the College’s vision extends to the shaping of American society.

What, another Christian college? Don’t we already have plenty of those around? While it might sound like your typical Evangelical college, it’s not. It’s a Muslim College, with the Koran as a firm foundation. The stated mission of the college is to “educate and prepare morally committed professional, intellectual, and spiritual leaders, who are grounded in the Islamic scholarly tradition and conversant with the cultural currents and critical ideas shaping modern society.”

I find this so exciting. Here is a place where ideas in Islam can be vetted, discussed, and developed. Zaytuna College has beautiful potential for those who fear an extreme version of Islam, as the college pursues a vision to deepen American Islamic scholarship by developing approaches that are true to the Koran, but also appropriately engaged in postmodern America.

And as I thought about it, it struck me that Zaytuna College is firmly in the tradition of another important element of American Higher Education, the Christian College. I know, but I mean beyond the obvious differences in belief:

Integrating faith and learning: Faculty lead students in discovering and developing deep connections between their personal faith and the knowledge found in professional study. In contrast to secular colleges, these institutions embrace a world view that includes faith, instead of trying to remove it.

Spiritual formation: The belief that a college has a responsibility to not only develop academic programs, but also to create programs that serve the spiritual development of students, faculty and staff. Humans are complex beings and a college needs to address the total person.

A view to change society: Institutions of faith are explicit in their intention to graduate students who see beyond the typical “get a job, get married, live life.” The integration of faith and learning, as well as the intentional spiritual formation, are expected to produce students who see the greater needs in the society they are a part of, the areas of culture that can be impacted toward a faith orientation.

So who is going to help Zaytuna develop as a vitally important institution in American higher education? They have a lot of work to do. As a brand new college, they face the daunting challenges of accreditation, creating a solid financial foundation, and recruiting and hiring qualified faith-oriented faculty.

Might I suggest? Christian colleges know how to be distinctive as faith-based institutions in an American educational context. They understand how to address standards for accreditation, while working from a sectarian perspective. But here’s the rub: it’s going to take an Evangelical institution to do it. The more liberal Christian colleges in America have long given up the distinctives that Evangelical institutions share with Zaytuna. I wonder if there is an evangelical institution that can see beyond the obvious differences, take a step, and really engage the “Islamic Issue” in the United States.

If you want to see more about Zaytuna College, here’s their site: www.zaytunacollege.org