Dr. Mohammed Salman Abdelqader

Dr. Abdelqader has a Ph.D. in Arabic Language Pedagogy and Applied Linguistics. He has spent more than 20 years teaching and leading different Arabic language programs and courses for undergraduate and post graduate studies in different universities and has directed senior thesis projects, which has made him an expert in teaching Arabic language for non-Arabs.

Abdullah bin Hamid Ali

Abdullah bin Hamid Ali is a full-time faculty member specializing in Islamic Law, Theology, and Hadith Science at Zaytuna College in Berkeley, CA. He is a lifelong student of the Islamic tradition. Born to Muslim parents, he began a serious study of Islam in his early teens.

Tahir Anwar

Tahir Anwar was born in London, England, and has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1983. Upon completing his religious studies at the renowned Darul Uloom Falah Darain in India, he has been serving as the imam of one of the oldest masjids in the country, the Islamic Center of San Jose, since 2001.

Dr. Cindy Ausec

Cindy Ausec was born and raised in California. After graduating high school, she entered the US Army where she was trained as a German Linguist and spent four years in Germany. After army service, she earned a BA in International Relations from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Dr. Rania Awaad

Rania Awaad has received a traditional license (ijazah) to teach Qur’anic recitation (tajwid) in both the Hafs and Warsh recitations from the late eminent Syrian scholar, Shaykh Abu Hassan al-Kurdi. In addition to completing several advanced texts of the Shafi’i school (madhhab), she is licensed to teach texts of Maliki jurisprudence (fiqh), literature (adab), and spirituality (ihsan).

Dr. Hatem Bazian

Dr. Hatem Bazian is co-founder, senior faculty, and Academic Affairs Chair at Zaytuna College. He is also a senior lecturer in the Departments of Near Eastern and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Shirin Maskatia

Dr. Shirin Maskatia is Professor Emeritus in the English department at Ohlone College where she has taught for the past twenty-two years. At Ohlone, she was the faculty advisor for various student activities, including the International Students’ Association and the Muslim Students’ Association.

Dr. Mahan Mirza

Having studied in traditional Muslim, interfaith, and secular academic settings, Dr. Mahan Mirza engages in the study of Islam from multiple perspectives.

Yusuf Mullick

Yusuf Mullick graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, studying pure mathematics and Arabic.

Imam Zaid Shakir

Zaid Shakir is chairman of the board, co-founder, and senior faculty member at Zaytuna College. He is also the chair of Zaytuna’s Student Affairs Committee, which looks after student residential life and co-curricular activities. In 2003, Zaid Shakir moved to Hayward, California to serve as a scholar-in-residence and lecturer at Zaytuna Institute.

Hamza Yusuf

Hamza Yusuf is a president, cofounder, and senior faculty member of Zaytuna College. He is an advisor to Stanford University’s Program in Islamic Studies and the Center for Islamic Studies at Berkeley’s Graduate Theological Union.