Steve Jobs's biological father, Abdulfattah "John" Jandali (b. 1931), was born into a Muslim household and grew up in Homs, Syria.^[12] Jandali is the son of a self-made millionaire who did not go to college and a mother who was a traditional housewife.^[12]While an undergraduate at the American University of Beirut, he was a student activist and spent time in jail for his political activities.^[12] Although Jandali initially wanted to study law, he eventually decided to study economics and political science.^[12] He pursued a PhD in the latter subject at the University of Wisconsin, where he met Joanne Carole Schieble, a Catholic of Swiss and German descent, who grew up on a farm in Wisconsin.^[11][12][13] As a doctoral candidate, Jandali was a teaching assistant for a course Schieble was taking, although both were the same age.^[14] Mona Simpson (Jobs's biological sister), notes that her maternal grandparents were not happy that their daughter was dating Jandali: "it wasn't that he was Middle-Eastern so much as that he was a Muslim. But there are a lot of Arabs in Michigan and Wisconsin. So it's not that unusual."^[14] Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs's official biographer, additionally states that Schieble's father "threatened to cut Joanne off completely" if she continued the relationship.^[11]