Howler of the Month (archive)

"Palestinian violence is a byproduct that was set and situated upon them."

Hatem Bazian, director of the Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project at the University of California, Berkeley, speaking at Zaytuna College; American Thinker, December 1, 2016. (link to source)

We Couldn't Have Said it Better (archive)

"[Martin] Kramer's warnings about the politicization of the field have been more than amply validated by the steady movement of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) toward casting off its frayed commitment to being a 'nonpolitical' organization, and endorsing—it has not done so yet—the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement against Israel."

Jonathan Marks, professor of politics at Ursinus College, reviewing Middle East scholar and Shalem College professor Martin Kramer's new book, "The War on Error: Israel, Islam, and the Middle East"; Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME), October 18, 2016. (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

The MLA Vs. Israel
December 29, 2016 - The Daily Caller

Lewis & Clark Adds Minor in Middle East/North Africa Studies
December 28, 2016 - News of Lewis & Clark

Fantasy Islam (Kafir Edition), Part II [on John Esposito]
December 26, 2016 - FrontPage Magazine

Professor Imprisoned in Iran: Academic Freedom 'Not a Western Import' [on Homa Hoodfar]
December 26, 2016 - Times Higher Education

Harvard Launches Fellowships in Islamic Law to Sway U.S. Policy
December 25, 2016 - Breitbart

The Algemeiner's First Annual List of the US and Canada's Worst Campuses for Jewish Students
December 23, 2016 - The Algemeiner

Building Bridges Between Muslim, Jewish Communities in Oak Park [incl. Omer Mozaffar and Nausheen Akhter]
December 23, 2016 - WLS-TV (ABC News Chicago)

School Lesson Says Christians Are Treating Muslims Harshly
December 22, 2016 - FoxNews.com

Fantasy Islam (Kafir Edition) [on John Esposito]
December 22, 2016 - FrontPage Magazine

Hatem Bazian Tries to Erase Jewish History
December 21, 2016 - American Thinker

Blog

The MLA Vs. Israel

By Cinnamon Stillwell | Thu, 29 Dec 2016, 4:21 PM | Permalink

The Modern Language Association (MLA) is on its way to out-politicizing the field of Middle East studies by embracing BDS and other anti-Israel activism. Former MLA member and MEF Shillman Ginsburg Fellow A.J.Caschetta's report for Campus Watch is posted at the Daily Caller:

The Modern Language Association (MLA) historically is no friend of Israel. It has flirted with the BDS movement but postponed an official BDS vote until 2017. Some MLA members can't wait. Taking seriously the cliché of professors learning from their students, in 2014 an unknown number of MLA members formed their own faculty-version of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the leading student BDS advocate. They call themselves the MLA Members for Justice in Palestine and use the awkward initials "MLAMJP" – apparently unable to produce a clever acronym.

The MLAMJP devotes itself to advocating BDS, depicting Israel as an Apartheid state, defending its positions against charges of anti-Semitism, promoting Al Jazeera documentaries, and writing lots of open letters.

To read the entire article, please click here.

Hatem Bazian Tries to Erase Jewish History

By Winfield Myers | Wed, 21 Dec 2016, 10:43 AM | Permalink

Hatem Bazian

Few professors of Middle East studies can top Berkeley's Hatem Bazian for his brazen misrepresentation of history, and few venues for spewing anti-Israel propaganda can compete with Zaytuna College, an Islamist institution in the same town. As Campus Watch contributor Michael Lumish reports today at American Thinker, Bazian was true to form earlier this month:

At his recent book-launching lecture for Palestine... It Is Something Colonial, anti-Israel academic Hatem Bazian stood in the "sanctuary" of Berkeley's Zaytuna College before an audience of around fifty students and faculty and, in an amazing feat of historical prestidigitation, eliminated thousands of years of Jewish history in the Middle East.

Bazian, director of the Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project at the University of California, Berkeley and cofounder of Zaytuna, a self-described Muslim liberal arts college, maintained that "Zionism involved erasing existing Palestinian history and forging a new history as to claim the land and expel the population." Such efforts at Jewish historical elimination are consistent with UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, which recently denied the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Meanwhile, Bazian bemoaned "the constant attempt for [sic] erasure of everything related to Palestine."

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

Prof on ISIS: 'As Islamic as Anything'

By Cinnamon Stillwell | Mon, 19 Dec 2016, 7:45 PM | Permalink

Ovamir Anjum

University of Toledo Islamic Studies Professor Ovamir Anjum gave a recent talk at Georgetown University that demonstraed that, as he put it, "ISIS is as Islamic as anything." Andrew E. Harrod's report for Campus Watch is posted at American Thinker:

"These things come and go," declared University of Toledo Islamic Studies professor Ovamir Anjum of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a phenomenon he demonstrated is not an aberration in Islamic history. His December 1 presentation, "ISIS & the Future of Islam," at Georgetown University's Saudi-funded Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) indicated that ISIS has far more Islamic legitimacy than many will admit.

To read the entire article, please click here.

Trump Terror within Middle East Studies

By Cinnamon Stillwell | Tue, 13 Dec 2016, 2:48 PM | Permalink

Donald Trump

The reaction of Middle East studies academics to Donald Trump's presidential election win has been nothing short of hysterical. Campus Watch West Coast representative Cinnamon Stillwell and CW contributor Michael Lumish chronicle the ongoing nervous breakdown at American Thinker:

Nowhere was the hysteria, panic, and fearmongering attending Donald Trump's win in the 2016 presidential election felt more strongly than on college campuses -- and Middle East studies academics were no exception. Rather than acknowledging that justified concern over increasing terrorism in the U.S. was a strong factor, they dismissed Trump voters as angry, fearful, ignorant, "Islamophobic" white supremacists.

To read the entire article, please click here.

Campus Watch Blog Archive