I drove past Adirondack Mountains. I drove by Lake George. And in a few minutes, I knew that I was approaching Skidmore College, the place where I'd be spending next 4 months before going back to Georgia for holidays.
Before I arrived here, I obviously got a number of questions about what I was going to study, and what classes I was taking. Apart from my freshman seminar, a class about Russian History, and Intro to Philosophy, there was one class that everyone wondered why I took. It was a class about Islam.
It’s hard to imagine why a child who comes from an orthodox country that has its religious traditions deeply rooted into it, would take a class about Islam his first semester in college. Philosophy is self-explanatory. Almost everyone back home knew that I was interested in it. Russian history? We all know about how Russian and Georgian politics are, and how we have a history with them. That was not surprising. Actually, it was rather smart for me to take that class, since I am supposed to know as much as possible about the country with which we have strained relations. That’s what everyone said. But Islam?
It’s been ages since Georgia has had a conflict with a Muslim country, I come from a Christian family, and I’ve never been to an Eid dinner before. So what could’ve been the reason behind this decision? Well, there are a few. First and foremost, I personally view Islam as one of the most interesting religions to study, since it has so many similarities to Christianity, hence explaining a lot of things about other world religions as well. Apart from that, I was always amazed by how accurately sometimes maybe in a pedantic way Muslim people treat their religious practices and ideologies. This is not to say that people representing other religions don’t do this, but I found the Muslim ways of doing these more captivating. But there is another reason, probably the most important one that made me take this class. It’s the inner desire to find out about this religion as much as I can to better understand modern world politics.
At first sight, this seems too vague and basic. Everyone wants to know more about politics these days. My way of thinking about this is different though. I believe that by taking a class purely about the religion, a class that has nothing to do with either politics or economics, will give me a better understanding of the religion everyone seems to be blaming for modern conflicts. For 15 years now, I’ve been seeing 9/11 footages, for several years now I’ve been hearing about ISIS and its deadly executions. I’ve been reading about American intervention in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan. And it is obvious to assume that Islam as a religion is at fault here, since CNN and FOX don’t offer an in-depth review of what they're broadcasting. I refused to assault a religion without having a proper premise to the actions leading to this moment.
So without any hesitations, I chose to grasp an opportunity to learn more about a wide-disliked religion in modern world. I have the inner desire to pursue the perfect and pure understanding of things-a very clichéd desire for sure. But this desire is what made me take up this part of my studies, which I am sure will give me a sufficient insight into how and why Islam is really connected to world politics.
