redneck_billcollector
Purveyor Of Fine Spirits
I have an undergrad degree in history with an emphasis on middle eastern studies. There were about 4 courses on Islam, and 7 or 8 on middle eastern history to include zionism. Dr. V. Eggar at Georgia Southern back in the mid-80's to late 80's was a great proffessor. I also took a few middle eastern comparative politics classes (had dual degrees, one in Poly Sci too, with a minor in International Studies).
I have a huge library on the subject too, (to include a couple of translated qu'rans and a translation of the various haditha) I found it interresting and I have attempted to keep up with what is going on.
After about 2 years of me and a couple of other students pushing, we finally got arabic and farsi courses offered, but alas, they were offered my final quarter and I had been accepted in grad school so I was not able to take advantage of those classes. I have often though that when I can retire I am going to re-enroll and get a degree in arabic.
I have always found Islam to be a fascinating subject, I was in the military prior to college and visited the middle east during a "bright star" deployment (Egypt). The Lebanese civil war was going on at that time along with the Iraqi/Iranian war and the soviet occupation of Afghanistan and I figured we were going to be involved in that region of the world (both militarilly and economically) to a rather large extent in the future. Pan-arabism was proving to be a failure and the rise of Iran's Islamic Republic and Hezobllah in Lebanon seemed to signal the wave of the future. The popularity of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt along with the assasination of Sadat seemed to enforce my beliefs on this matter.
The soviet bloc was on the decline and everyone knew it and I figured our next major opponent was going to be the salafi islamic movement that was taking root within the world of islam (in the sunni dominated areas of Egypt, Algeria, Yemen, the southern Philippines and Pakistan) so I wanted to learn all I could. I also toyed with the idea of taking emplyment with ARAMCO as opposed to going to grad school for awhile, but in the end, due to the fact I was married at the time, I choose grad school.
I have a huge library on the subject too, (to include a couple of translated qu'rans and a translation of the various haditha) I found it interresting and I have attempted to keep up with what is going on.
After about 2 years of me and a couple of other students pushing, we finally got arabic and farsi courses offered, but alas, they were offered my final quarter and I had been accepted in grad school so I was not able to take advantage of those classes. I have often though that when I can retire I am going to re-enroll and get a degree in arabic.
I have always found Islam to be a fascinating subject, I was in the military prior to college and visited the middle east during a "bright star" deployment (Egypt). The Lebanese civil war was going on at that time along with the Iraqi/Iranian war and the soviet occupation of Afghanistan and I figured we were going to be involved in that region of the world (both militarilly and economically) to a rather large extent in the future. Pan-arabism was proving to be a failure and the rise of Iran's Islamic Republic and Hezobllah in Lebanon seemed to signal the wave of the future. The popularity of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt along with the assasination of Sadat seemed to enforce my beliefs on this matter.
The soviet bloc was on the decline and everyone knew it and I figured our next major opponent was going to be the salafi islamic movement that was taking root within the world of islam (in the sunni dominated areas of Egypt, Algeria, Yemen, the southern Philippines and Pakistan) so I wanted to learn all I could. I also toyed with the idea of taking emplyment with ARAMCO as opposed to going to grad school for awhile, but in the end, due to the fact I was married at the time, I choose grad school.
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