Prior to 1990, knowledge about the Kurds was limited to a few people in government agencies and a couple scholars across the United States. There was no clear reason why the public should know more about the Kurdish people. Starting in the 1960s, the U.S. government dealt with the Kurdish political and tribal leaders covertly; against the central government in Baghdad. Among academia , Middle Eastern scholars have focused mainly on the Arab-Israeli conflict; on the Iranian revolution because of economic interests in Persia, and on Turkey because of its membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) .

Kurds, who are politically and economically insignificant compared to their Arab, Persian, and Turkish neighbors, remained ignored. Even when the Kurds were targeted by chemical weapons in 1987-88, the American scholars and public paid little to no attention to the tragedy compared to their colleagues in Europe. The situation changed, however when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990 and the United States decided to lead an international coalition to liberate Kuwait. The U.S. government, in their attempt to weaken Saddam's regime, called upon the Kurds and other Iraqis to rise up against the regime. Thus began a new era of communication between Kurdish leaders and U.S. policy makers; communication which was focused on one political objective: toppling Saddam.

The mass exodus of the Kurds in April/May 1991 brought images of Kurds to U.S. households. Kurds have been introduced to the American public through their tragedies. Kurdish people; men, women, and children, suddenly became real people in the eyes and minds of the American public. The Kurds, who felt they were once again betrayed by the American government, instead turned to the American people for help and understanding. Many staff members in Congress and journalists, as well as Kurdish intellectuals, worked together to pressure the White House to help Kurdish refugees and secure them safe return to their homes. As a result, the U.S. government led another international coalition to provide humanitarian aid to the Kurds in Operation Provide Comfort.

Leading the effort to provide aid to the Kurdish refugees was a new task for me. American generosity in helping the refugees caused me to question why there was an absence of any relationship between the Kurdish people and the American people on a grassroots level. Visiting refugee camp after camp on the Iraq/Iran border, I was asked by countless refugees "Why has the United States done this to us?". Witnessing the horrific images: children searching for their parents, men and women missing legs because of land mines, nearly everyone sick and hungry; made it impossible for me to give them any satisfactory answer. Even knowing that the aid came from the American public did not help quell the pain and anger the Kurds felt towards the United States. Flying back to the United States in May 1991, the idea of creating a center in the United States to inform and educate the American people about the Kurds was born in my mind.

Many Kurds established Kurdish centers in Europe, but these centers either lasted only a few years because of a lack of funding (if they were independent) or became tools of different Kurdish political parties or ideological groups. However, two Kurdish centers caught my attention. The first was the Kurdish Institute in Paris; funded by the French government and supported by leftists. The second was the Kurdish Culture Center in London; funded by the British government and supported by the Kurds in England. I visited Europe in Fall 1991 to learn more about these institutions and better understand their work. When I returned to the United States, I was determined to establish the center that I had been thinking about for months. I felt that there was a need for an independent, non-political, scholarly organization on the Kurds.

Kurdish tragedies, and the highly publicized Operation Provide Comfort, had increased American interest in the Kurds: Kurdish language, culture, history, etc. Demand for specialists and scholars on the Kurds greatly increased. Nevertheless, the number of intellectual Kurds was very limited , and they were unprepared to fulfill the demand in an organized and/or collective way. Kurdish political parties, the Kurdish Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, had the largest Kurdish support network but focused on their political objectives The Kurdish Library in New York had the largest collection of books on the Kurds, but lacked resources and Kurdish connections. The Kurdish National Congress has the largest number of Kurdish intellectuals and professionals but focused mainly on lobbying and other political activities. There were no legitimate scholarly non-political organizations about the Kurds in the United States. Therefore, when BCKS was established, it received support from the above groups for doing this important work.

In Fall 1991, with the support of my good friend Mr. Jalal Shaban and my wife Hana, the Badlisy Center for Kurdish Studies (BCKS) was founded in the state of Florida. One of the challenges we faced was choosing a name for the organization. In our view, the name had to honor Kurdish scholarship and reflect the nature of the organization. Therefore, we chose to name the center after Sharafkhan Badlisy (1543-1603), a noted Kurdish scholar who wrote the first history of the Kurds, in the sixteenth century. There were some objections raised from American colleagues to the name Badlisy since the majority of Americans had never heard of Sharafkhan. Likewise, there were objections from Kurdish friends to "Kurdish Studies" , as they wanted the organization to be a Kurdish organization, instead of a scholarly organization about the Kurds.

The logo chosen was the word "Kurdistan" in Arabic script in the shape of a triangle. The art was done by a Lebanese architect by the name Muhammad Arnaout. He also drew the portrait of Sharafkhan Badlisy that adorned Namah and most of BCKS' work.

It was hard to find suitable scholars to serve on BCKS' advisory committee since there were limited scholars of Kurdish decent in the United States. Nevertheless, we reached out to non-Kurds in the United States and Kurds abroad. The committee was finally formed, and it included the following members:

BCKS was able to conduct many activities in six years (1992-1998) including: (1) organizing two international conferences on Kurds (in 1993 and 1998), (2) organizing about 16 panels, workshops, and lectures in educational and professional institutions and societies, (3) providing scholarships to graduate students who selected a subject relating to the Kurds for their thesis and dissertations, (4) publishing the newsletter Namah, (5) increasing the interaction between American and European scholars, (6) increasing interaction between Kurdish scholars and their Arabic, Persian and Turkish counterparts, and (7) increasing interaction between government officials and academia on Kurds. You can read about most of BCKS' activities from 1993-1998 in NAMAH.