leadership formation for our students who are and will be helping shape Islam in America. We value our relationship with CST and expect that the flexible modes of
ight years ago, CST entered into a partnership with Bayan Claremont, an Islamic graduate school that aims to support ethical leaders and scholars grounded in the Islamic tradition. This partnership enables all our students to deeply study their own traditions while studying alongside scholars and religious leaders of other faiths. This partnership provides CST and Bayan graduates real-world training in interfaith cooperation. Research indicates interreligious education deepens one’s understanding of his or her own tradition more effectively than mono-religious education, and eight years in, CST and Bayan graduates are proving this principle again and again.
delivering courses to students from around the country that we already employ here in Claremont will continue to be possible in any new location.” A current Bayan Claremont Master of Divinity student, NI’MAT SHAHEED has just completed her first year and has been impressed by the scholarship and care of her professors. She says, “This is my first academic experience where my mind and heart have freely entertained different subject matters along a
HADI QAZWINI, M.A. ’14 , is currently pursuing a Ph.D. through the School of Religion at The University of Southern California and was the first student to be admitted into their new Global Islam track with research interests in Islamic intellectual history, theology, and law. Since his graduation, Hadi has taught a course for Bayan on Sunni-Shia relations and intra-faith issues and has begun serving on their Board of Trustees while also serving as an imam in the American Muslim community. He says, “CST/Bayan provided me with two important and interrelated tools for my work with the American Muslim community. First, I was provided with
steady trajectory of thinking. I have found the professors to be insightful, diligent, and well-versed, and I am acquiring a new-found liberation in how I perceive the world. As a result, I am developing greater universal perspectives that I hope will serve me in my work as a professor, public speaker, and author in interfaith arenas, universities, and Insha-Allah, the United Nations.” (Insha-Allah is an Arabic term often translated as “God-willing.”) CST Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty, SHERYL KUJAWA-HOLBROOK , says, “Although CST has always been United Methodist, ecumenical, and even interreligious from its inception, our work over the last eight years, as we expanded our interreligious partnerships, has also served to deepen our United Methodist and ecumenical Christian identities. Our opportunities for partnerships with other institutions interested in becoming part of this ethos continue to grow, as does the diversity and numbers in the student body. This mission, along with the expansion of our technologically assisted programs, contributes to CST’s growing world-wide reputation as a center for excellence in theological scholarship and ministerial training.” If you’d like to learn more about Islam or the programs offered through Bayan Claremont, visit www.bayanclaremont.org . BayanONLINE is a program that allows non-degree seeking students to complete graduate-level courses at their own pace. Developed from their academic programs, it gets you access to a comprehensive library of Islamic learning.
ample opportunities to study the richness of my own as well as various religious traditions and to further appreciate the potentials of religious thought and diversity in our world today. Second, I was provided with the practical tools and skills to translate that knowledge into positive action that is relevant to the common opportunities and challenges of our contemporary world.” The Director of Academic Affairs and Planning for Bayan Claremont, MUNIR SHAIKH , says, “Bayan has thrived by being part of CST and has benefitted from the support of so many campus departments. The cross-enrollment by students of the various partner schools has enriched the classroom experience and provided a unique type of
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