Howler of the Month (archive)

"How we as a nation move forward is critical. . . . Do we turn into an angry mob accusing all Muslims of a crime that two men committed? Do we turn this into an anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant hysteria? . . . Do we want to be heroes, like the ones that put their own lives on the line. . . . Or do we give in to unjustified bloodlust?"

Omid Safi, professor of Islamic studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in "10 Essential Points About the Boston Marathon Bombers, Islam, and America," Religion News Service, April 20, 2013. (link to source)

We Couldn't Have Said it Better (archive)

"[I]t is important to study the Middle East, but not in the way that it is currently being done. It needs to be done in a way that you actually learn; that you actually gain some insight, a marketplace of ideas. It shouldn't be only one opinion. And oh, you can't challenge it if you don't have a Ph.D. That's not how it works. Students also have academic freedom and my academic freedom should be respected just as much as anybody else."

Rachel Avraham, graduate student in Middle Eastern studies at Ben-Gurion University and content manager for United with Israel, speaking at an Israel Academia Monitor conference in Tel Aviv on May 3, 2013. (link to source)

CAMPUS WATCH, a project of the Middle East Forum, reviews and critiques Middle East studies in North America with an aim to improving them. The project mainly addresses five problems: analytical failures, the mixing of politics with scholarship, intolerance of alternative views, apologetics, and the abuse of power over students. Campus Watch fully respects the freedom of speech of those it debates while insisting on its own freedom to comment on their words and deeds.

The Latest on Campus

Al-Jazeera Runs Then Deletes Anti-Semitic Screed by Columbia University Professor Joseph Massad
May 19, 2013 - Legal Insurrection

From Al Jazeera to Columbia University: Joseph Massad's Obsession with Israel
May 17, 2013 - The Jerusalem Post

UC Berkeley "Islamophobia" Prof Hatem Bazian Equates Boston Jihad Bombings with "Islamophobia"
May 15, 2013 - Jihad Watch

Iranian-American Launches Bid for Iran's Presidency [on Hooshang Amirahmadi]
May 14, 2013 - CNN

Joseph Massad Tries to Equate Anti-Semitism with Zionism
May 14, 2013 - Elder of Ziyon Blog

Establishing the 'Anti-Semitic' Roots of Zionism? [on Joseph Massad]
May 14, 2013 - The Daily Beast

Tenure Track Bigotry [on Joseph Massad]
May 14, 2013 - The Washington Free Beacon

Double Standards at University of California [incl. Hatem Bazian]
May 13, 2013 - American Thinker

Lessons on Hating America [incl. Richard Falk]
May 13, 2013 - Human Events

U.S. Has to Push UN Human Rights Council to Can Hate-Monger Richard Falk
May 11, 2013 - New York Daily News

Blog

Profs on Boston Bombing: Blame Right-Wingers, 'Islamophobia,' and Blowback

By Cinnamon Stillwell | Tue, 7 May 2013, 12:02 PM | Permalink

Boston Memorial

The latest Campus Watch Research, posted today at Frontpage Magazine, examines the reaction of Middle East studies academics and their allies to the Boston Marathon bombing. Anyone and everyone is to blame--except Islamist terrorists.

How did scholars of the Middle East and those engaged in moonlighting (non-specialists who write about the region) react to the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013? Before the smoke cleared, some were predicting that the perpetrators would be "right-wingers" who sought to "disrupt tax day," "neo-Nazis," or "lone wolves." Given that Muslims constitute 30 of 32 of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's list of most wanted terrorists, this represents either wishful thinking or willful blindness.

Accordingly, after brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were identified as the perpetrators, scholars resorted to apologetics and obfuscation to explain away Islam's role: the Tsarnaevs aren't "real" Muslims; Islam and terrorism are incompatible; Islamic terrorism is no more significant than any other societal ill; "Islamophobia" and a wave of anti-Muslim hate crimes (that has yet to arrive) will ensue; and the attack was an example not of ideologically-rooted violence, but of logical "blowback" against American foreign policy.

To read the rest of the article, please click here.

Anti-Semite Ali Mazrui Honored by Alwaleed Bin Talal Center at Georgetown University

By Winfield Myers | Fri, 3 May 2013, 7:09 PM | Permalink

Ali Mazrui

On May 6, 2010, Ali Mazrui, director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at SUNY-Binghamton, made the following statement to an audience at Columbia University:

The population of Jews in the US is three percent ... but [their 'genius'] leads to their controlling so much power that even presidents are scared [of them]. Whether [President Barack] Obama will be able to escape the notion that three percent of the country is so powerful that the top gentile in the land cannot criticize Israel is not clear.

In spite of--or perhaps because of--this and other blatantly anti-Semitic statements recorded below, Mazrui has been awarded the "2012-13 Building Bridges Award" by the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. The Center's founding director, John Esposito, has long been among America's most vocal apologists for the radical Wahhabi branch of Islam. By honoring Ali Mazrui, the Center Esposito directs--founded with a $20 million gift from Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal--remains true to its origins.

ACMCU's website says the award, "recognizes individuals who have dedicated their life's work to fostering greater understanding between faith groups." Mazrui and the two other recipients are recognized, it states, because their "efforts to promote interfaith relations, peace-building and social justice have been extraordinary."

As illustrated by the quote above and those below (all taken from the same Columbia lecture), Mazrui is no bridge builder. He also claimed that:

Continue to full text of posting...

UC Berkeley's Hatem Bazian Promoted ASUC Divestment Vote

By Cinnamon Stillwell | Thu, 25 Apr 2013, 3:53 PM | Permalink

Hatem Bazian

Predictably, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) has congratulated the Associated Students of the University of California, Berkeley (ASUC), for its recent passage of Resolution SB-160, which, as they describe it, calls for "divestment of student and university funds from companies that profit from Israel's occupation of Palestine." In the process, they published a letter written before the resolution's passage from Hatem Bazian, AMP founder and chairman and senior lecturer in Near East studies at UC Berkeley--not to mention a fanatical anti-Israel activist--urging ASUC to approve the bill.

In spite of its specious analogies to South African apartheid and ludicrous claims, including that UC Berkeley is "hostile and unwelcoming for Palestinians since the campus is affirmatively investing in the occupation and supporting it in deeds and words," Bazian's letter had its intended effect. Given his repeated emphasis on being "a member of the UC Berkeley faculty," it's hard to imagine ASUC did not take that into account when making its decision.

Once again, we see the nefarious influence that politicized Middle East studies academics such as Bazian can have on student opinion.

'The Great Book Robbery' Hijacks History

By Winfield Myers | Mon, 8 Apr 2013, 1:49 PM | Permalink

Benny Brunner

Writing for Campus Watch, Middle East Forum adjunct scholar Asaf Romirowsky critiques "The Great Book Robbery," an anti-Israel film posing as a historical documentary. It is being screened on campuses across the U.S., often with the sponsorship of departments of Middle East studies. Here's a taste of the essay, which appeared yesterday at Ynet News:

'The Great Book Robbery' (watch here), a documentary that recently screened on a number of US college campuses, is the latest attempt by anti-Israel groups to rewrite and recast the historical events of 1948.

In the film, Israeli-Dutch director Benny Brunner purports to reconstruct how 70,000 Palestinian books were systematically taken by the new-born state of Israel during the 1948 war as part of a calculated attempt to erase any shred of Arab-Palestinian culture. Seeking to explain the process by which the books came under Israeli control, Brunner interviewed former and current employees of the National Library (NL) at the Hebrew University, where the books are housed.

To read the rest of this article, please click here.

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