Hatem Ahmad Bazian

Background

Ethnicity: His family background is Palestinian Arab; his parents were associated with Nablus and Jerusalem.

Bazian was born on June 12, 1964, in Amman, Jordan, to Ahmad Al-Bazian and Naghew Masri. His family background is Palestinian Arab, connected with Nablus and Jerusalem. Amman became a major center of Palestinian refugee life after the 1948 Nakba, and Bazian's later scholarship repeatedly addressed displacement, Palestine, and the political experiences of Muslim and Arab communities.

He moved to the United States for higher education and has lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area since the 1980s. His personal and intellectual trajectory connected Jordanian and Palestinian family history with American university life, Islamic studies, ethnic studies, and community-based political organizing.

Education

Bazian studied at San Francisco State University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in international relations and speech/communication and a master's degree in international relations. San Francisco State, founded in 1899 as a normal school, developed into a public urban university with strong traditions in social justice, ethnic studies, and civic engagement.

He pursued doctoral study at the University of California, Berkeley, receiving a Ph.D. in philosophy and Islamic studies in 2002. Berkeley's Near Eastern studies and related humanities programs provided an institutional setting for research in Islamic intellectual history, Arabic and Middle Eastern studies, religion, and political thought. His dissertation concerned Jerusalem in Islamic consciousness and later appeared in book form.

Career

Bazian began professional consulting work through private practice in El Sobrante, California, where he served as a consultant from 1998 to 2008. His early professional development combined research, religious studies, public affairs, and community-oriented consulting.

He joined the University of California, Berkeley, as a lecturer in 2001 and later taught in Near Eastern studies, Middle Eastern languages and cultures, and Asian American and Asian Diaspora studies. He also served as an adjunct professor of law at Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law from 2002 to 2007 and as a visiting professor of religious studies at Saint Mary's College of California from 2001 to 2007. At Berkeley he advised the Religion, Politics and Globalization Center and taught courses concerning Islamic law and society, Islam in America, religious studies, and Islamophobia.

Bazian co-founded Zaytuna College, established in Berkeley in 2009 and later accredited as a Muslim liberal-arts college. The institution seeks to combine classical Islamic learning with contemporary academic education. Bazian has served there as a professor of Islamic law and theology and in academic leadership roles.

In 2009 he founded Berkeley's Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project at the Center for Race and Gender. The project studies the historical and contemporary construction of anti-Muslim prejudice and brings together academic research, public education, and community analysis. In 2012 it launched the Islamophobia Studies Journal, for which Bazian became editor-in-chief. He was also the Tolson Visiting Scholar at Pacific School of Religion in 2015.

Beyond university teaching, Bazian founded American Muslims for Palestine in 2006 and has served as its national chair. He has held leadership and board positions in organizations including the Northern California Islamic Council, the Muslim Legal Fund for America, the Islamic Scholarship Fund, and the International Islamophobia Studies Research Association. His public writing has appeared in venues including Al Jazeera English, Daily Sabah, and Turkey Agenda.

Achievements

• Bazian founded the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project at the University of California, Berkeley's Center for Race and Gender, creating a research initiative devoted to the systematic study of anti-Muslim prejudice and the social construction of Islam and Muslims as an 'other.'

• He launched the Islamophobia Studies Journal in 2012 and served as its editor-in-chief, helping establish an interdisciplinary publication devoted to research on Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism.

• He co-founded Zaytuna College, an accredited Muslim liberal-arts college that combines Islamic scholarly traditions with contemporary higher education.

• He founded American Muslims for Palestine and served as its national chair, helping develop a national organization focused on education, advocacy, and organizing concerning Palestine.

Works

• academic journal

  • Islamophobia Studies Journal

    (Bazian founded and edited this biannual interdisciplinary...)

    2012

• academic monograph

  • Al-Quds in Islamic Consciousness: A Textual Survey of Muslim Claims and Rights to the Sacred City

    (A book-length study based on Bazian's doctoral research e...)

    2002

• book chapter

  • Islamophobia: An Introduction to the Academic Field, Methods, and Approaches

    (A scholarly introduction to the development of Islamophob...)

    2019

• essays

  • Annotations on Race, Colonialism, Islamophobia, Islam and Palestine

    (A collection of Bazian's essays on race, colonialism, Isl...)

    2017

• political analysis

  • Palestine: … it is something colonial

    (Bazian analyzes Palestine through the framework of settle...)

    2016
  • Erasing the Human: Collapse of the Postcolonial World and the Refugee-Immigration Crisis

    (Bazian examines colonialism, Palestine, displacement, rac...)

    2021

Religion

Bazian is a Muslim scholar whose academic and public work examines Islamic law, theology, Qur'anic interpretation, Muslim identity, and the position of Muslims in contemporary societies. His religious scholarship is grounded in the Islamic intellectual tradition while engaging with questions of race, colonialism, migration, and political power.

His work connects classical Islamic sources and institutions with modern debates about Islam in America, religious authority, Palestine, and anti-Muslim racism. Zaytuna College, which he co-founded, was established to combine traditional Islamic scholarship with contemporary liberal-arts education.

Politics

Bazian's political engagement has centered on Palestine advocacy, Muslim civil rights, anti-racism, and opposition to Islamophobia rather than on a documented membership in a conventional political party. He founded American Muslims for Palestine in 2006 and has worked through academic, religious, and community organizations to promote Palestinian political claims and challenge anti-Muslim discrimination.

His political thought is expressed through a decolonial analysis of Palestine, colonialism, race, migration, and the racialization of Muslims. In his scholarship and public commentary, he treats Islamophobia as a structural political and social process rather than only as individual prejudice, and links debates about Palestine to wider questions of civil liberties, racial justice, and global inequality.

Views

Bazian's intellectual work is shaped by a decolonial perspective that centers Islamic epistemology and examines modern institutions through the experiences of colonized, racialized, displaced, and migrant communities. He argues that scholarship should remain connected to communities and public struggles rather than being confined to an isolated academic sphere.

His writings treat Palestine, Islamophobia, race, migration, and colonialism as interconnected questions of power and historical memory. He emphasizes the moral importance of resisting the erasure of marginalized people and links religious, legal, and political analysis to social justice and human dignity.

Membership

Bazian has participated in professional, scholarly, educational, and civic organizations concerned with Middle Eastern studies, Islamic scholarship, Muslim civil rights, and anti-Islamophobia research. His documented affiliations include the Middle East Studies Association, the International Islamophobia Studies Research Association, the Islamic Scholarship Fund, the Muslim Legal Fund for America, and Al-Shabaka.

These organizations connect academic research with professional exchange, legal assistance, educational support, policy analysis, and advocacy concerning Muslim communities and Palestine.

• Member

  Middle East Studies Association , United States

• President

  International Islamophobia Studies Research Association , United States

  2022 - present

• Board member

  Islamic Scholarship Fund , United States

• Board member

  Muslim Legal Fund for America , United States

• Policy member

  Al-Shabaka , United States

Personality

Bazian has described his scholarly and educational approach as one that connects academic work with communities rather than separating university research from public life. His teaching philosophy emphasizes enabling students to participate critically in social and political discussions and to relate academic study to questions of justice and civic responsibility.

Quotes from others about the person

• In presenting Bazian with the 2019 Ronald T. Takaki Teaching Award, UC Berkeley's American Cultures Center credited his courses with expanding the Ethnic Studies curriculum by bringing the American Muslim experience and Islamophobia into sustained classroom study.

Interests

• His documented interests include Islamic law and theology, Arabic language and literature, Qur'anic commentary, Palestine studies, Muslim American studies, diaspora and migration studies, ethnic studies, critical race theory, decolonial thought, and the study of Islamophobia.

Connections

Bazian married Sandy Stephan on June 12, 1996. They have two children, Yusuf Al-Bazian and Abir Al-Bazian.

His professional connections include the University of California, Berkeley; Zaytuna College; the Center for Race and Gender; the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project; and American Muslims for Palestine. His collaborations with scholars, religious educators, and community organizations have joined Islamic studies with ethnic studies, migration research, and public advocacy.

Father:

Ahmad Al-Bazian

Mother:

Naghew Masri

Spouse:

Sandy Stephan

Bazian married Sandy Stephan on June 12, 1996.

child:

Yusuf Al-Bazian

child:

Abir Al-Bazian

References

• University of California, Berkeley — Hatem Bazian faculty profile Documents Bazian's position as a lecturer in Arabic and identifies his research interests in Arabic language and culture, Qur'anic commentary, colonialism, ethnic studies, Muslim American studies, Islamic law, Palestine studies, and related fields.
• Institute for Social Policy and Understanding — Hatem Bazian biography Summarizes Bazian's academic positions, co-founding role at Zaytuna College, leadership of the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project, launch of the Islamophobia Studies Journal, and involvement in Muslim civic organizations.
• UC Berkeley American Cultures Center — 2019 Ronald T. Takaki Teaching Award Documents Bazian's teaching award and describes the contribution of his courses on Islam in America and Islamophobia to the Berkeley Ethnic Studies curriculum.
  2019
• UC Berkeley Center for Race and Gender — Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project Documents Bazian's founding of the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project and its launch of the Islamophobia Studies Journal in 2012.
• American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences — review of Palestine: … it is something colonial Reviews Bazian's 2016 book and describes its analysis of Ottoman collapse, British colonialism, Zionism, dispossession, ethnic cleansing, the Nakba, and possible decolonial futures.
  2018
• International Islamophobia Studies Research Association — Hatem Bazian biography Describes Bazian as a decolonial scholar, founder of the Islamophobia Studies Center, editor-in-chief of the Islamophobia Studies Journal, president of the International Islamophobia Studies Research Association, and author of several books.