tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1366593360975078720.comments2013-09-30T07:17:35.316-07:00Oral Roberts U, Richard Olivito, Tulsa and Afghanistan: Understanding The Roots of FundamentalismUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1366593360975078720.post-87791244163033182582013-09-30T07:17:35.316-07:002013-09-30T07:17:35.316-07:00One of the most important "discoveries" ...One of the most important "discoveries" academically of these Halcyon days of my intellectual blossoming...and the growth of my understanding of world affairs and middle eastern history and historical forces at play in shaping our present modern world, was learning about the mid eastern scholars who have helped bring such light and understanding to us westerner's, at least this one from Appalachia ...a southeastern, Midwesterner <br /><br />the name is Fuad Ajami...from John Hopkins University...<br /><br />his writings were so brilliant and so filled with insight yet, he wrote them in a much different manner than the typical academician or post PhD of our times...he wrote of the Arab cultures and nations and struggle with western modernity in a manner that was more prose than pure recitation and academic rhetoric ...and for those of us, then learning of the issues of this vital part of world with all of its present day relevance and consequence...reading any of his Foreign Policy articles or his books were not simply a major eye opening but also a rare pleasure.as well....his name always remained w/ me long after graduation and long after many many years, when I began to see him appear on CNN and the Sunday morning shows and again, last year, when the "Arab Spring" which he had long written of...finally in some odd stumbling sort of way, came blazing across our tv screens here in the west... almost 30 yrs after reading his first articles...it was his voice and his style of even speaking just like his writings, that captured my ear and as I turned and saw him talking on CNN during the Egyptian uprising...it was as if I was still young and back in ORU comfortable class rooms with Dr. Repko, discussing the finer aspects of why the West needs to understand the Middle East and how it is so relevant and how the WEst has impacted these nations...as well..richard olivitohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01369237277582868832noreply@blogger.com