Zaytuna College in Berkeley

Imam Zaid Shakir, co-founder of Zaytuna College, the only Muslim liberal arts college in the U.S., greets visiting Imam Aziz Eddebbarh, from Las Vegas.

(Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)

Dec. 15, 2015 3 AM PT

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Aisha Ibrahim, 21, right, came to Zaytuna College from the south side of Chicago. Women at the school say they make sure to walk in twos or threes. Out of the corners of their eyes, they can see the occasional stare from strangers.

(Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)

Imam Zaid Shakir delivers a sermon at the MCC, a community center for Muslims in Pleasanton on Friday. Shakir is widely regarded to be one of America’s most influential Islamic thought leaders.

(Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)

Zaytuna College in Berkeley, with a student body of 60, is something of an academic hybrid — an accredited liberal arts college that blends a classical Western education with course work related to the study of Islam.

(Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)