Anthologies of academic articles are traditionally reserved for retired professors as a mark of their emeritus status. It typically takes an entire career in academia to produce sufficient scholarship to create a volume of any size. There are those who may count it as brash and premature that I have compiled this collection of commentary and opinion in less than the requisite thirty to forty years. I can only blame the vibrant and compelling times we live in and a personal commitment to use my knowledge to advance the conversation. Thus, this volume represents only a small portion of the scholarship and research that has held me in thrall for so many years. This work focuses on issues arising from the growing interest in and, in truth, misinformation about Islam and the language that gave birth to the belief. Because there can be too much of even a good thing, it fails to incorporate an equally sizable body of scholarly writings related to Hispanic and Amerindian affairs.

When considering the quality of this work, readers should be reminded that it includes a combination of academic, scientific, and journalistic articles. These writings, which range from popular speech to erudite exposition, include essays written at the secondary, undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate levels of my education. As such, each article should be appreciated according to its time, which I have included, and place of production. Though some critics may question the inclusion of such early pieces, they are integrated into the whole in order to reveal an ideological evolution and the precocious nature of aspiring penmanship.

The most important contribution of this work, however, is that it brings together articles that appeared in a wide array of publications, many of which are difficult, if not impossible, for the lay person to obtain. With the support of Ansariyan Publications, along with the permission of my previous publishers, over forty of my writings and reviews will now be available in a single source. It will ultimately be readily available through bookstores and university libraries worldwide. While much has been published and more has been produced, there yet remains much to be written. It will be my pleasure to contribute to the vast scholarship on many subjects.

Dr. John Andrew Morrow
Moulay Idris Zerhoun, Morocco