What's a nice Jewish studies professor doing in Egypt?

[varelse]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1100641.html

"What's a nice professor of Jewish studies doing teaching in a place like this?"

For those unfamiliar with contemporary Egyptian intellectual life, this might be the first question that comes to mind upon meeting Mohamed Hawary, a professor of Hebrew studies and Jewish thought at Ain Shams University in Cairo, a teeming school of some 180,000 students.

Hawary, 59, is considered to be the doyen of Jewish studies in Egypt. A world-renowned scholar of Judaism, the author of numerous books and articles on a wide range of Jewish subjects, Hawary is also a practicing Muslim and a proud and patriotic Egyptian.

I love Haaretz. Thank you, DU's I/P forum denizens, for the introduction! (just had to get that out there)

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Do you want the warm and fuzy answer or the real one?

Answer this, what did Russian Specialists like Dosoievsky did in US schools?

That is your real answer, regardless of the Professor's intent...

:-)

Yes, I am that cynical... but Tzun Tsu answers this so clearly it is not even funny.

[varelse]

2. "I thought it was important to know who this enemy was."

It was, Hawary said, the 1967 Six-Day War with Israel that ultimately moved him to turn his budding interest into a career. "Israel was the enemy, of course, of Egypt and the Arabs. But I thought it was important to know who this enemy was."