Founding Advisory Board Member · Independent Scholar and Bibliophile
Yusuf Nuruddin is a Brooklyn-born and bred independent scholar and bibliophile. Irresistably drawn to both the Sunnah and Tasawwuf, and tabliqued by the Last Poets (“In Search of Knowledge”), he reverted to Islam in 1974 at the age of 24. This was during a remarkable decade in North American Muslim history when brothas in the hood abandoned “street life” and its inevitable consequence — “street death” — to enter the Din in droves (Qur’an 110:2).
Nuruddin has taught social science and Africana Studies at University of Massachusetts/Boston, University of Toledo, Seton Hall University, The New School, and CUNY. He holds an undergraduate degree from Columbia University (BA,1972), graduate degrees from Harvard (MA,1977) and Yale (MBA, 1981), and is currently enrolled as a graduate student at Boston Islamic Seminary.
Selected Publications
- “African American Muslims and the Question of Identity: Between Traditional Islam, African Heritage, and the American Way”
- “Ancient Black Astronauts and Extraterrestrial Jihads: Islamic Science Fiction as Urban Mythology”
- “Take the J Train to Mecca”
Timbuktu Academy
He is presently engaged in curriculum development for Timbuktu Academy, a proposed college preparatory madrassa/high school for inner city youth. The mission of the Timbuktu Academy is to shape a new generation of morally, ethically, and internationally conscious Muslim thinkers and activists whose vision and skills transcend the present and historical limitations imposed upon the poor and downtrodden.
This mission draws its inspiration from the diplomatic initiatives of Malcolm X/Al Hajj Malik Shabazz, who rose from subjugation to become a spokesperson and ambassador of the African American people to the peoples and nations of the Global South, particularly Africa, Asia, and the Muslim world.
In light of this mission, the curriculum of the Timbuktu Academy is broader than the traditional madrassa. In addition to Islamic Studies, the curriculum will include Afro-Asian Studies, highlighting both the social sciences and humanities, with a special emphasis on the history, struggle, ideology, solidarity, and creative production of African peoples worldwide.