Zaid Shakir (Arabic: زيد شاكر; born Ricky Daryl Mitchell, May 24, 1956)[1] is an American Muslim scholar[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] and co-founder of Zaytuna College[16][8] in Berkeley, California.

Shakir is co-founder and chairman of United For Change,[17] whose stated goal is to leverage the diversity of the Muslim and interfaith community and address divisive obstacles.

"[24][25] Zaid Shakir is one of many signatories to a statement prepared by religious leaders from around the world who presented the UN Secretary General with a declaration in support of the Paris Climate Agreement.

[26] Shakir was born in 1956[9] in Berkeley, California as Ricky Daryl Mitchell to a family descended from African, Irish and Native American[10] roots.

And, in the fall of 2010, he and his colleagues Hamza Yusuf, and Hatem Bazian co-founded the Berkeley, California based Zaytuna College, a four-year Muslim liberal arts college, the first of its kind in the United States,[29] dedicated to "educate and prepare morally committed professional, intellectual, and spiritual leaders", who are grounded in the Islamic scholarly tradition and conversant with the cultural currents and critical ideas shaping modern society.

[30][31] As reported in The New York Times, Zaid Shakir appeared with nine other influential Muslim scholars in a YouTube video denouncing militant Islam.

"[35] The Chronicle of Higher Education has praised him, stating, "Embodying an American story if ever there was one—including proverbial bootstraps, military service, political activism, and deep religious commitment—Zaid Shakir's message of social justice in the face of poverty and racism he has known first hand makes him endlessly and, it often seems, effortlessly relevant.