Yes, I actually do Islamic studies (not apologetics) for a living

Last updated on: January 4, 2016 at 12:13 pm

January 4, 2016 by Dan Peterson

Where I work . . . — Looking northward over the Joseph F. Smith Building at BYU. My office is near the southwest corner, out of the photo to the lower left, with a view over Provo and Utah Lake.
(Wikimedia Commons; click to enlarge.)

Well, the new semester — called Winter 2016 at BYU — has begun. Yippee!

I’m routinely accused of writing on Mormon topics (and, especially, of defending Mormon claims) because I’m richly rewarded for doing so by the Church. (I’ve even seen estimates putting my apologetic income in the seven figures!) Actually, of course, my salary comes from being a professor of Islamic studies and Arabic at Brigham Young University. That’s my actual job, and no part of my salary comes from defending Mormonism. Not a dime.

This semester, I’m teaching

“An Introduction to the Humanities of Islam” (IHum 242)

“An introduction to the Religion of Islam” (MESA 250)

Arabic 425R, which will be devoted to reading portions of the Qur’an in Arabic

And, because we have visions of a book eventually resulting from it, I’ll be involved in

Near Eastern Languages 511 , with Professor Stephen D. Ricks