(Religion News) One of the world’s most prominent Islamic scholars is drawing criticism from some Muslims for participating in the State Department’s newly announced Commission on Unalienable Rights.
Sheikh Hamza Yusuf, an influential Sunni leader who co-founded Zaytuna College, America’s first accredited Muslim undergraduate college, will be joined on the commission by Rabbi Meir Yaakov Soloveichik; Stanford professor Russell Berman; Notre Dame law professor Paolo Carozza; Harvard sociologist Jacqueline Rivers; Katrina Lantos Swett, former chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom; philosopher Christopher Tollefsen; and UC Irvine professor David Tse-Chien Pan.
“Despite Sheikh Hamza Yusuf’s rich, robust and arguably unparalleled contributions to Islamic thought in the West, it pains me to see him collaborate with the most Islamophobic administration in American history,” said Hamzah Raza, a graduate student in Islamic studies at Harvard Divinity School.
