Kendra, thanks for the list of your travel destinations, but having travelled to a number of countries ( a few with poverty issues) you should know better than to make an issue out of poverty in the Islamic world (particularly as that area is one you pointedly have stayed away from). As you should know, before I pointed it out, poverty in the masses while the ruling classes live in luxury is not unique to Islamic countries and it's nothing unusual in many parts of the world. Your attempt to demonise Islamic states for a problem that's worldwide and has no religious barriers is disengenuous.
I'm intrigued to understand why someone who has made the effort to travel quite widely, chooses as their topic to study, a culture that they clearly have no empathy with and actively dislike. To me, it seems peculiar to choose to do your thesis in a subject where your personal (antagonistic) feelings could adversely effect the course you spend all that time studying. It's not a critisism, just I would have thought that it would have made more sense to study Indian history or even Mayan or Incan where your personal memories and intuitions might have added to your paper as opposed to relying on the thoughts and words of others. Maybe American universities operate differently, but in the UK, if you'd spent a number of years studying a culture it would be expected you would have some empathy with that culture. Your open hostility would certainly damage your grades. Plus I can't see how it would be possible to enjoy studying a culture that you clearly hate.
