Zaid Shakir

Zaid Shakir
Zaid Shakir on PBS interviewed by Bill Moyers, in New York, 2007
Born	Ricky D. Mitchell 24 May 1956 (1956-05-24) Berkeley, California, U.S.
Occupation	Islamic Scholar, Professor, Author
Religion	Islam
Website
New Islamic Directions.com

Zaid Salim Shakir is a prominent American Islamic scholar and writer who is a co-founder, (with Hamza Yusuf and Hatem Bazian), and faculty member, of Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, United States, where he teaches courses on Arabic, Law, History, and Islamic Spirituality. He is one of the signatories of A Common Word Between Us and You, an open letter by Islamic scholars to Christian leaders. It has become an important interfaith dialogue initiative between Christians and Muslims.

Early life

Born in Berkeley, California and with his formative years in Connecticut, he accepted Islam in 1977 while serving in the United States Air Force and shortly after changed his name to Zaid Salim Shakir. A summa cum laude graduate, he obtained a BA in International Relations at American University in Washington, D.C. and later earned his MA in Political Science at Rutgers University. While at Rutgers, he led a successful campaign for disinvestment from South Africa, and co-founded a local Islamic center, Masjid al-Huda. After a year of studying Arabic in Cairo, Egypt, he settled in New Haven, Connecticut and continued his community activism, co-founding Masjid al-Islam, the Tri-State Muslim Education Initiative, and the Connecticut Muslim Coordinating Committee. As Imam of Masjid al-Islam from 1988 to 1994 he spearheaded a community renewal and grassroots anti-drug effort, also accepted the position as Professor and taught political science and Arabic at Southern Connecticut State University. He served as an interfaith council Chaplain at Yale University and developed the Chaplaincy Sensitivity Training for physicians at Yale New Haven Hospital. Zaid Shakir participates as a speaker at Islamic Society of North America annual conferences.

Years Abroad

Zaid Shakir then left for Syria to pursue his studies in the traditional Islamic Sciences. For seven years in Syria, and briefly in Morocco, he immersed himself in an intense study of Arabic, Islamic law, Quranic studies, and spirituality. In 2001, he was the first American graduate from Syria's Abu Nour University and returned to Connecticut, serving again as the Imam of Masjid al-Islam, and writing and speaking frequently on a host of issues.

Recent work in the United States

In 2003, as a scholar-in-residence at Zaytuna Institute located in California, Zaid Shakir began to teach Arabic, Law, and Islamic Spirituality. And, in 2008, he co-founded the Berkeley, California based Zaytuna College dedicated to the revival of Islamic Sciences and the preservation of traditional teaching methods.

He has traveled all over the world lecturing about Islam and contemporary issues. Zaid Shakir has translated several classical texts from Arabic. He has been a special quest and interviewed twice on Bill Moyers on January 18, 2002 and June 22, 2007, a prime time TV station network PBS. In 2007, Zaid Shakir participated in a lively conversation entitled, Can We Talk About God? Devotion and Extremism in the Modern Age with the foremost conservative thinker in Britain, writer and philosopher Roger Scruton. These two thinkers with some common ground and some sharply differing perspectives, the discussion was moderated by award-winning journalist, documentary-maker, Sandy Tolan of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Also in 2007, Shakir was a contributing scholar in the award-winning, PBS-broadcast documentary Prince Among Slaves, produced by Unity Productions Foundation.

He is the first Islamic Scholar to spearhead a nationwide initiative "Bite The Bug" a project of the ONE Campaign, along with many partners who are passionately concerned about matters plaguing Muslims regardless of culture, geography, language or race. This mission is to raise national awareness and demonstrate that the American Muslim community is compassionate, empathetic and action-oriented about basic maladies within the world.

He has brought both sensitivity about race and poverty issues and scholarly discipline to his faith-based work. In the spirit of the great scholars of the past, Zaid Shakir embodies the rationality, spirituality and breadth of traditional knowledge, as well as cutting-edge academic intellect. He leaves a lasting impression; his ability to move hearts and minds enlightens all walks of life. He is married and has one adopted son.

Zaid Shakir was a participant at the 9th annual 2010 seminar with The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams who chaired the Building Bridges Christian-Muslim Seminar on Tradition and Modernity, which brought together leading Muslim and Christian scholars from around the world to explore issues at the heart of the two traditions. Shakir has also been featured on the Washingtonpost.com and Newsweek blog, On Faith. He is a frequent speaker at local and national Muslim events and has emerged as one of the nation’s top Islamic Scholars and a voice of conscience for American Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Zaid Shakir stated in a 2009 interview with USA Today, "as a faith community our needs aren't any different than the needs of any other faith community. As Muslims, we need to develop institutions to allow us to perpetuate our values."

Zaid Shakir has expressed a hope that the people of the United States convert to Islam, "Every Muslim who is honest would say, I would like to see America become a Muslim country. I think it would help people, and if I didn't believe that, I wouldn't be a Muslim. Because Islam helped me as a person, and it's helped a lot of people in my community."

According to CNN blog This Just In, an article entitled "Today's Intriguing People" states, The New York Times has reported that Zaid Shakir is one of nine influential Muslim scholars who has appeared in a You Tube video denouncing militant Islam."

A September 8, 2010 NPR.org report, titled "Listen to The Story: New College Teaches Young American Muslims", revealed that Zaid Shakir informed the inaugural class that they are "pioneers, charting the future course of American Islam — which is not for the faint of heart. Literally, the whole world is looking at you. The whole world is listening to you. You will be put under a microscope by a lot of people, and you will have to perform."

Criticism

While many have cited Zaid Shakir as example of Islamic moderation, his critics have questioned his moderate credentials. In his book America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, Mark Steyn challenges the characterization of Shakir as a moderate Muslim, citing Shakir's expressed hope for the conversion of America to Islam and adoption of Islamic law in America.

On November 13, 2009 Zaid Shakir issued a lengthy statement regarding the Fort Hood shooting with this introduction:

I begin by expressing my deepest condolences to the families of all of the dead and wounded. There is no legitimate reason for their deaths, just as I firmly believe there is no legitimate reason for the deaths of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghani civilians who have perished as a result of those two conflicts. Even though I disagree with the continued prosecution of those wars, and even though I believe that the US war machine is the single greatest threat to world peace, I must commend the top military brass at Fort Hood, and President Obama for encouraging restraint and for refusing to attribute the crime allegedly perpetrated by Major Nidal Malik Hasan to Islam. We pray that God bless us to see peace and sanity prevail during these tense times.

This statement was praised by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) but criticized by Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, President of the American-Islamic Forum for Democracy and a former lieutenant commander in the United States Navy. Jasser said that "as an American Muslim," he was offended by these comments which he believes reflect Shakir's "disdain for our military." However, Ingrid Mattson, the President of the Islamic Society of North America supported Zaid Shakir's response to the Fort Hood tragedy as "solidly grounded in the Islamic legal, ethical and intellectual tradition."

Commendation

A 200 page report entitled, “The 500 Most Influential Muslims” edited by noted professors John Esposito and Ibrahim Kalin was published November 20, 2009 by The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre (Jordan) and the Prince Alwaleed Bin-Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (Georgetown University) describes Shakir as “an influential Islamic scholar". The New York Times describes him as "a leading intellectual light" whilst adding that he has "a history of anti-American rhetoric" that has mellowed over the years. Tikkun Daily states that he is "one of the most thoughtful and dynamic teachers about the true nature of Islam in America today".

Publications

Books authored

• Where I'm Coming From: A Year In Review, 2010
• Agenda To Change Our Condition, (Co-authored with Sheikh Hamza Yusuf), 2007
• Scattered Pictures: A Reflection of An American Muslim, 2005

Books translated with additions

• Treatise For The Seekers of Guidance, (translation and commentary of Al-Muhasibi's Risala Al-Mustarshidin), 2008
• Heirs of the Prophets, 2000

Books which include his foreword or note

• Green Deen: What Islam Teaches About Protecting the Planet, (editorial review), 2010
• Ascent to Felicity, (editorial review), 2010
• The War within Our Hearts: Struggles of the Muslim Youth, (wrote introduction), 2010
• Living With Blindness: Lessons from the Life of Imran Sabir, (wrote introduction), 2009
• Submission Faith and Beauty, The Religion of Islam (Co-edited with Sheikh Hamza Yusef), 2008
• A Gathering of Voices on Caring For Creation, (contrib. article)The Zaytuna Ruku Tree, 2008
• Dear Self: A Year In The Life of A Welfare Mother, (wrote foreword), 2006
• The Empire and The Crescent, (contributed article Jehad as Perpetual War), 2004

Papers

• Crescentwatch Position Change
• An Examination of The Issue of Female Prayer Worship

External links and further reading

Websites

• Zaytuna.org - Imam Zaid Shakir co-founder and faculty member of College
• New Islamic Directions - Official Website
• Lectures of Imam Zaid Shakir

Articles and Interviews

• Media Articles Profile

See also

• Abd al-Rahman al-Shaghouri
• Hamza Yusuf