This article features the International Peace University South Africa in Cape Town. The university, which was established in 2004, resulted from the merger of two local "madrassas", or religious colleges, yet seeks to prepare its students for success in the secular world. Its Islamic roots are not in the Middle East, but in East Asia. Situated on the grounds of a mosque in a sprawl of bleak, mixed-race suburbs in an area known as the Cape Flats, the campus lies in the heart of the region's Muslim community. Local residents are the descendants of slaves brought over from present-day Malaysia and Indonesia after the Dutch East India Company founded the Cape Colony in 1652. A large part of the university's mission is to rekindle the intellectual traditions for which Cape Muslims were once renowned. Ideologically, the university positions itself as moderate. Intellectually, the university orients itself more toward Indonesia--which has the world's largest Muslim population--and Malaysia than toward the Middle East or the rest of Africa. Many students here see the university as a steppingstone to the Medina and other religious institutions in the Middle East.