My secular past. When I was growing up, you rarely heard the words "Jihad" or "fatwa". When we were growing up, my siblings and I would get scared when we saw a woman in a niqab, and would literally run away. When I was a student at the American University of Beirut, I remember that the Amal Movement wanted to close down the campus to protest the "disappearance" of Imam Musa As-Sadr. I was adamant (as a member of the unelected (elections are overrated--do you want me to name to you "elected" people around the world?--) student government--the administration prohibited elections after the civil war) to not allow Amal to close down the campus, and we didn't. When Anwar Sadat went to Israel, we did close down the campus. I was adamant about that one. Those were the days.