Mar 12, 2015 08:40 PM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

A Berkeley-based college has become the first accredited Muslim college in the United States.

Zaytuna College, which was founded in 2009, received accreditation after the college commission of the Western Association of Schools and colleges granted its approval, The Los Angeles Times reported. The school can now hand out an accredited "Bachelor of Arts in Islamic Law and Theology."

"Five years ago, we introduced an undergraduate liberal arts program inspired by the idea of restoring the holistic education that had been offered in the great teaching centers of Islamic civilization," School President Hamza Yusuf said in a statement. "Today, Zaytuna's accreditation roots this vision in a reality recognized within American higher education. It gives our community its first accredited academic address in the United States. And we hope, God willing, that there will be more such Muslim colleges and universities to come."

Accreditation is good news for Zaytuna's current and future students. This recognition means that their conferred degrees are recognized by graduate schools and employers. Another immediate outcome of Zaytuna's accreditation is that its internet address will soon change from zaytuna.org to zaytuna.edu, a domain shared by every other accredited college and university. 

Zaytuna College began as Zaytuna Institute in 1996, an educational organization committed to reviving the traditional methods of pedagogy found in the Islamic intellectual tradition. In 2009, it was founded as a liberal arts college in Berkeley, Calif., by Hatem Bazian, Zaid Shakir, and Hamza Yusuf, with a mission that called for grounding students in the Islamic scholarly tradition as well as the cultural currents and critical ideas shaping modern society. 

The College's curriculum is rooted in the classical liberal arts aimed at equipping students with the tools of learning, critical thinking, and eloquent expression. Zaytuna graduated its first class in 2014. 

See Now: Covert Team Inside Newsweek Revealed as Key Players in False Human Trafficking Lawsuit