From Bethlehem to the United States

The content of the autobiography of Adnan A. Musallam, PhD, transcends his birth and upbringing in a Christian Palestinian Arab family in Bethlehem, the Holy Land, and his traumatic childhood and goes beyond that into another very different culture in America at an early age, where he lived as an exchange student with five Rotary families while attending Wabash High School in Wabash, Indiana, from 1962 to 1963. It was a continuous adjustment as he was moving from one very kind family to another. The high school diploma he got in June 1963 paved the way for his BA (1967), MA (1970), at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana and Ph.D. (1983) at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor Michigan.

But the ups and downs of life in Indiana and Michigan led to a divorce and led him to enlist in the United States Navy in January 1975. At the end of active duty in May 1977, he was awarded a United States Navy Achievement Medal; and he was enrolled in the doctoral program at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Eventually, he joined the teaching staff at Bethlehem University in the Holy Land beginning in September 1981, and he taught history at the Tour Guide Program at Bethlehem Bible College. Adnan is married to Salwa Sayeh, who both have five daughters and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Appendix A and appendix B revolve around Adnan's stay in Wabash, while appendix C focuses on his membership in the Delta Chi fraternity at Indiana University, and appendix D deals with Adnan's career and thought.

It is clear from the content of Adnan's autobiography that his life and thought are closely intertwined with the Palestinian Israeli conflict, 1948-present.



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