Quote of the Month (archive) "Wahabism is like the Baptists; it's kind of a denomination of sorts that started out in Saudi Arabia." Ebrahim Moosa, associate professor of Islamic studies at Duke University, commenting on Wahhabi influence in higher education via the funding of Middle East studies at Georgetown and Harvard universities by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal; as quoted in the Charlotte Observer, February 25, 2010. (link to source) We Couldn't Have Said it Better (archive) "Many on the Left employ a double standard concerning free speech. They want their own advocates or professors immunized from criticism – thus Prof. Newman's outrage at groups, such as Campus Watch, which publicize what professors say in and outside the classroom. On the other hand, they develop an elaborate set of rules to disallow the speech of others as incitement, Islamophobia, homophobia, sexism, racism, or McCarthyism." Jonathan Rosenblum, Jewish Media Resources Director and Jerusalem Post columnist, responding to a Jerusalem Post column by Ben-Gurion University political geography professor David Newman, February 19, 2010. (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

Leading Muslim Thinker's Non-Violent Activism [on Tariq Ramadan]
March 12, 2010 - Eureka Street (A publication of Jesuit Communications Australia)

Unsettling Anti-Semitism at U.C. Davis Can Be Fought With Education
March 12, 2010 - J. Weekly (Jewish News Weekly of Northern California)

Grant Recipients Announced at Middle East Studies Night
March 11, 2010 - The ASU Herald (student newspaper of Arkansas State University)

Reporter Challenges US media Coverage of Iraq [incl. Tarek El-Ariss]
March 11, 2010 - The Daily Texan (student newspaper of the University of Texas at Austin)

TiZA Families Seek To Join Legal Fight Over Religion
March 11, 2010 - The Minneapolis Star Tribune

The Bullies in the White House [incl. Rashid Khalidi]
March 10, 2010 - American Thinker

Minnesota Islamic Charter School Gets Testy [on Tarek Ibn Ziyad Academy]
March 10, 2010 - Bruno's North Star Blog

Students Tune in to Middle East [incl. Dany Doueiri]
March 10, 2010 - Contra Costa Times

40th Annual Holocaust-Scholars' Conference Honors Franklin Littell [incl. Khaleel Mohammed]
March 10, 2010 - Main Line Times

An Interview With Marcia Inhorn
March 10, 2010 - Somatosphere Weblog

Blog

History as Propaganda

By Cinnamon Stillwell | Thu, 11 Feb 2010, 12:30 PM | Permalink

	Rashid Khalidi

"This is not an Israeli-Palestinian debate," Stanley Cohen, the director of the Scone Foundation, said. "It is [a conference] to honor the archivist profession."

Cohen's statement was half true: the event was not a "debate," but only because there were no dissenting opinions to challenge keynote speaker Rashid Khalidi's monologue portraying the Palestinians as powerless victims of an Israeli foe intent on destroying their historical records.

Cohen was speaking to an audience of approximately 150 people, mostly members of the general public and scholars of the Middle East, at the Scone Foundation's "Archivist of the Year" award ceremony, held January 25 at the CUNY Graduate Center's expansive auditorium in the heart of New York City.

The event was billed as an opportunity to honor the joint recipients of the seventh Archivist of the Year award, Yehoshua Freundlich of the Israeli Archives and Khader Salameh of the Al-Aqsa Mosque Library. Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University and a former spokesman for the PLO, and Professor David Myers, the director of the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, were the event's keynote speakers.

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

"Reviving the Islamic Spirit" or Promoting Islamic Dominance?

By Winfield Myers | Fri, 5 Feb 2010, 8:21 AM | Permalink

	Sherman Jackson

Billed as "Canada's largest Muslim convention," Reviving the Islamic Spirit – 8th Convention was held in Toronto on December 25 – 27, 2009. Having heard the reports that 17,000 attendees from Canada and the U.S. were expected, I decided to see for myself. I also wanted to know if the convention would stress spirituality, promote moderate Islam, or offer apologias for radical Islam.

The lecture hall, with a capacity of 6,500 people, was completely full and there were still many people outside. The sales area contained around 50 booths selling Islamic clothing and books. I looked for books by reformers such as Salim Mansur, Tarek Fatah, Irshad Manji, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, to no avail. Similarly, none of the speakers I heard addressed the violence of radical Islam. This gross omission about something so current and important was telling.

Also telling was the radical lecture by University of Michigan professor Sherman Jackson, which, Usher writes, "[W]as a call to battle. It had little to do with peaceful co-existence with the West, but was an exhortation for Islam to dominate the West."

Read the rest of the essay here.

New Campus Watch Research: the Model Arab League, and Massad at UCLA

By Winfield Myers | Mon, 1 Feb 2010, 6:58 PM | Permalink

CW-commissioned pieces appeared today and yesterday. Stephen Schwartz takes a close look at the Model Arab League in "Model Middle East Indoctrination," which appeared Sunday at American Thinker. What he found should concern parents of students in high school and college who participate in this seemingly benign enterprise:

Most Americans, even many of those concerned with the problems of academic Middle East Studies, have probably never heard of the Model Arab League (MAL), an American exercise similar to the better-known Model United Nations. The stated aim of such efforts is to expand awareness of world affairs among high school and college students. Participants compete in regional role-playing sessions as representatives of constituent countries in the corresponding world bodies and receive awards for their performance. They are then sent to contend at "nationals" held in Washington, D.C. and similar to matches sponsored by many other student societies and sports associations.

But the Model Arab League could be described better as a propaganda network for Arab nationalism, including promotion of the Arab states' hostile postures toward Israel, than as a contributor to excellence in international studies or debate.

Today at FrontPage Magazine, Eric Golub reports on a recent lecture at UCLA in, "Joseph Massad at UCLA: Gay-Bashing 101":

A lecture last week at the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies (CNES) offered a delightful mixture of intellectually deficient material mixed with a dash of bigotry.

It was delivered by Joseph Massad, associate professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University.

People in the private sector compensate for inadequacies by purchasing expensive cars. In academia, they just give themselves long titles.

The topic of Massad's lecture was – I kid you not – "Pre-Positional Conjunctions: Sexuality and/in Islam."

Read the rest of Schwartz's article here; Golub's piece is available in its orginal form at this link.

'New Muslim Cool' Promotes Dialogue as Toronto Prof. Plays Victim Card at Screening

By Winfield Myers | Thu, 28 Jan 2010, 1:34 PM | Permalink

	Sherene Razack

"Too often when we think of Muslims in America we think only of the immigrant experience," said Zaheer Ali, a doctoral student at Columbia University who studies America's indigenous, primarily African-American and Latino, converts to Islam. "Islam is no stranger to black art…Islam is not 'foreign' to hip hop."

Ali served as an advisor for "New Muslim Cool," a thought-provoking documentary that tells the story of Puerto-Rican Muslim convert Hamza Perez and his hip-hop group, The Mujahideen Team. The documentary was screened on Thursday, January 14, in front of an audience of approximately 100 students, professors, and members of the general public at Columbia's Altschul Auditorium.

Sherene Razack, Professor of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, prefaced the screening with a keynote address entitled, "Western Responses to the Torture of Muslims." While the documentary provided a powerful reminder of how religious practice can be a means to confront prejudice, drug abuse, and gang activity in the inner-city, Razack's divisive lecture belied the more conciliatory themes of the film.

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

Campus Watch Blog Archive