Berkowitz+and+Faul

Peter Berkowitz and M.M. Faul's “Studying Islam, Strenghtening the Nation,”

//"It remains painfully true, more than three years after Sept. 11, that even highly educated Americans know little about the Arab Middle East. And it is embarrassing how little our universities have changed to educate our nation and train experts on a wider Middle East."//

Berkowitz starts off his essay with this passage which sets the stage for the entire essay. He finds that many of the problems that we as Americans have with the middle east is that we don't know their language, their culture, and their religion. If we just got a few people to go and learn about them, we as Americans could avoid many problems because right now, they could blatently talk about a horrible plan, but we wouldn't know it was going to happen because we don't understand them. I really like this because I find it to be so true. Berkowitz even uses the example that during the Cold War, there were Americans who were being taught Russian and other Eastern Europe countries so that we could be knowledgeable of them.

ALLISON

//"It will not be easy to find the necessary faculty. During the Cold war, universities could draw on a pool of extraordinary European emigres."//

Explination: This quote examplifies a mistake the United States made in the Cold War as opposed to the mistakes we are making today in that america hosts immigrants whose cultures we aren't educated in. Having people from foreign cultures gives us an advantage, for we can obtain knowledge about their countries through such people.