Teaching Mideast history to its history makers

posted on: Apr 17, 2015

“The Surge” brought Sgt. William Griffin to Iraq in 2007. His tour of duty was intense, dangerous and – he recently recognized – historic.

At California State University San Marcos, Griffin took several history classes taught by Professor Ibrahim Al-Marashi. The courses ranged across continents and centuries, from the ancient Hittite empire to Alexander the Great, from Saddam Hussein to a certain Army sergeant.

“He helped me realize that I am actually a part of history,” said Griffin, 30. “He gave me a perspective on my own life that I never realized until I sat down and talked with him.”

“The enemy is a spiritual enemy,” he told an audience in 2003. “He’s called the principality of darkness. The enemy is a guy called Satan.”

While Al-Marashi’s lectures cover ISIS, al-Qaeda and other manifestations of radical Islam, that’s just one aspect of his courses. Today, the professor stressed, students need a more comprehensive view of this region’s politics, economics, faiths and cultures.

“There is a whole swatch of students who have been affected by Iraq and Afghanistan,” the 41-year-old Iraqi-American said. “Getting a greater picture of what sent them in the first place, the greater trajectory that brought them to Iraq and Afghanistan, is important.”

This approach is also popular. Thanks in part to veterans like Griffin, Al-Marashi’s classes are SRO.

“I’ve never had an empty seat,” the professor said. “Students appreciate context, how we got to where we are.”

How did Al-Marashi get here? Why is this Muslim scholar a favorite of students who have fought radical Islam? And how did he play a minor, yet controversial, role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq?

Source: www.utsandiego.com