As Adnan El Amine strolled the residential streets around Saint Xavier University last week, he was struck by the number of government offices.
He saw building after building with the American flag flying outside, but he was puzzled. Why were there no signs explaining the function of these offices?
Were they police outposts? Offices of the mayor or of some other local political official?
When El Amine learned the truth — that these are simply the homes of patriotic American families — he seemed amazed and chuckled at his mistake.
"This is political dissemination!" El Amine declared.
He should know.
A prominent professor at Lebanese University in Beirut, El Amine studies how nations — particularly Arab nations — use their education systems to transmit political values and beliefs. And he has examined the extent to which education is responsible for political thought within a country.
Now, El Amine is helping change curriculum at Saint Xavier University.
Here for two weeks as a Fulbright Visiting Specialist, El Amine is helping the university lay the groundwork for a minor in Middle Eastern Studies, which is slated to begin next year.
The Fulbright Visiting Specialist Program, administered by the privately operated Council for International Exchange of Scholars, aims to expand Americans' understanding of Islamic peoples and countries.
El Amine is Saint Xavier's first Fulbright.
"This is a big deal," said Laurence Musgrove, associate professor of English and coordinator of the Middle Eastern studies program.
The minor will be housed within the university's school of arts and sciences and will include courses on the history, religions and political culture of the Middle East, as well as Middle Eastern literature and Islamic art.
Arabic, already a course offering, may be expanded.
Eventually, student and faculty exchange programs will be established. Saint Xavier also is starting an Eastern European studies minor.
El Amine is giving professors here ideas for texts and contacts with other scholars. He's also talking about his own research.
El Amine supports Saint Xavier's plan to formally link its new Middle Eastern studies program to Middle Eastern immigrant communities in the Southland through "service learning" initiatives — something that could make Saint Xavier's program unique.
"In the United States, you see the Middle East as far away. But the Middle East is within the society. You have Middle Eastern students, you have a Middle Eastern community, you have Middle Eastern minorities," said El Amine.
More than anything, that was the impulse for starting the minor, Musgrove said.
"We want our students to become aware of globalization, global issues, global conflicts. But I think our main concern had more to do with the communities in this area," Musgrove said.
Saint Xavier University is not alone in trying to offer students more information about a part of the world now mentioned almost daily on the national and even local pages of the newspaper.
"With more and more emphasis on the region, more universities have seen a need to have specialists on the Middle East," said Rusty Rook, assistant director for the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago, which partnered with Saint Xavier in bringing El Amine to Chicago.
More exposure to Middle Eastern history and culture is needed here, said Mohammad Suleiman, 24, who graduated from Saint Xavier with a degree in international business and is now pursuing a master's degree in business administration there.
Suleiman, who is Palestinian, came to this country from Jordan when he was 15.
"As soon as 9-11 happened, a lot of people made a lot of judgments, and there were a lot of stereotypes," said Suleiman.
Still, if his Arabic language class can be taken as a sign of interest in the culture, six of the nine students were not of Arab descent.
"By establishing this (minor), it will allow people to have a better understanding of how we live and understand not everyone is a terrorist," Suleiman said.