Islamic Studies Master’s program at Starr King School for the Ministry

One year ago, we lost our beloved Provost and Professor of Islamic and Cultural Studies, Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajaje. A person of irrepressible spirit, Dr. Farajaje was a cherished teacher, colleague, friend, and intersectional scholartivist. He inspired countless students inside and outside of the classroom. He partnered with scholars, religious leaders, and organizations to create opportunities for learning within the school. He mentored people who have since become distinguished religious leaders, activists, artists, scholars and educators.

Since its beginning in 1904, Starr King School for Ministry has taught classes on the study of Islam. But over the past two decades, our school has excelled in pioneering new Islamic scholarship and creating opportunities for students of all faiths to learn Islam, thanks principally to Dr. Farajaje.

Before coming to Starr King, Dr. Farajaje taught classes in Islam at Howard University. But after the events of September 11, 2001, and the widespread Islamophobia that ensued, Dr. Farajaje and the leadership of the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) recognized that it was important than ever for aspiring religious leaders in the GTU consortium to increase their understanding of Islam.

In January 2002, the then-president of the GTU, James A. Donahue, called together the Islamic Studies Task Force of the Graduate Theological Union and asked Dr. Farajaje to be its chair. Over the next five years he was the prime architect, working with several other GTU leaders to develop Islamic Studies at the GTU in a cohesive fashion: during that time, curricular offerings in Islamic studies increased by 400% a range of Islamic scholars and religious leaders were recruited to teach at Starr King and a Center for Islamic Studies was established at the GTU.

A chapel service co-hosted by Starr King and the Center for Jewish Studies called Gifts of Al-Andalus which brought Christian, Jewish, Muslim and UU voices together.

Through the Islamic Studies Task Force the variety of courses on Islam at GTU schools expanded considerably. New courses included, among others, Race, Religion, and Islamophobia, Rumi and the Mystical Path of Sufism, and Islams: Multiplicity in Unity.

the work of the Task Force in GTU’s Islamic Studies Brochure.

Along with its seminal contribution to the establishing of GTU’s Center for Islamic Studies.

Through Dr. Farajaje’s vision and leadership, Starr King made its own commitment to foster the study of Islam. In 2005, largely through the efforts of Dr. Farajaje, the Luce Foundation awarded $350,000 to Starr King in support of the school’s work in Islamic Studies.

Dr. Farajaje’s approach to Islamic and multi-religious studies was based on what he called the Andalusian model. We had this dream that students would study sacred texts together. That Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Unitarian Universalist students would study together, would learn all of those texts together, learn prayers together.

Teaching alongside Islamic scholars he helped to recruit, he also helped to facilitate conversations at Starr King with scholars from around the globe queer trans perspectives on the study of Islam.

2005 Lecture at the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California, Towards and Islamic Theology of Liberation for the 21st Century.

He co-created with David Dezern the documentary Oceans of Mercy: African American Sufi Muslims in the San Francisco Bay Area, which featured stories from six African-American Muslims. The documentary was named Best Documentary at the 2004 New Way Film Festival, sponsored by the Center for the Arts, Religion, and Education at the GTU. He was instrumental in the development of a Ph.D. program in Inter-religious Studies for Muslim leaders, which he was invited to do by the Ministry for Habous and Islamic Affairs in 2005.