Hawzah News Agency - But a wake-up call at a Pinehurst library changed those plans. And while Howk does teach, he’s found a new mission, too: Explaining the Middle East, Islam and Muslim culture to a population that has little experience, but strong opinions on those topics.

At times, it has been a combative undertaking.

Howk has spoken at small rural churches across the Southeast and has, on occasion, had to be escorted to his car by church leaders at the end of the night.

But that hasn’t stopped his one-man mission to better educate America and, in the process, help promote tolerance.

“It just hit me when I got out,” Howk said, “that Americans know nothing about Islam.”

His efforts have expanded since he retired. In 2017, he published “The Quran: A Chronological Modern English Interpretation” through Old Stone Press. The book is intended for audiences that have little familiarity with Islam, the Quran or Muslim culture.

And earlier this year, he launched a podcast called “We’re Just Talking About It.”

Howk’s interest in Islam is tied to his experiences as a soldier.

He served as an enlisted paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division in the 1990s and returned as an officer a decade later.

Howk, a retired major, finished his Army career as a foreign area officer with expertise in the Middle East and southwest Asia.

But his first experiences in that part of the world came as a paratrooper on a training mission to the United Arab Emirates in 1996.

“That was really the turning point,” Howk said.

His interest in the Middle East became a career focus. But Howk quickly learned that while the Army has been heavily invested in the Middle East and southwest Asia in recent decades, the majority of America had done little learning about those parts of the world.