I'm a Middle Eastern Studies Major (poli sci). Along with the major comes tons, and tons of interesting classes, but none as much as Modern Islam has been. It has opened my eyes to a period of not only Islam, and the Middle East (and indonesia) but the entire world past the Classical years of Islam put together.
Why the big deal? Basically, if one were to turn on the news tomorrow, you'd be faced with endless stories involving the Middle east. One would see horrific scenes of war, of pain, and of suffering. Middle East peace would be at least 3 of the 5 topics discussed in an hour. Muslims would be referred to as barbaric, and portrayed as the opposite of modern societies in teh west.
Interesting fact: The argument was rasied that it wasn't Islam that held them back as Europe progressed forward (through enlightenment, democratic revolutions, indepedence, etc etc etc etc). Why did Europe progress forward and the Middle East not:
1. Mongol Invasions
2. Trees
interesting thoughts?
You should read "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond, his theory on why some civilizations progressed further than others is very interesting. A lot of his theory depended on agricultural issues and of course location location location :)
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