Light Without Fire: The Making of America's First Muslim College

The story of America's first Muslim institution of higher education, Zaytuna College. In the fall of 2010, anti-Muslim furor in the United States reached a breaking point, capping a decade in which such sentiment had surged. Loud, angry crowds gathered near Ground Zero to protest plans to build an Islamic cultural center, while a Florida minister promised to burn Korans on the anniversary of 9/11. Meanwhile, Muslims in Berkeley, California, founded Zaytuna College, America's first four-year Muslim liberal arts college, to establish a thoroughly American, academically rigorous, and traditional indigenous Islam. Scott Korb tells the story of the school's founders, Sheikh Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid Shakir, and introduces us to Zaytuna's students, young American Muslims who admire their teachers and represent the future of Islam in the U.S. The book offers an intimate portrait of the school and provides a new perspective on Islam in America.