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

Quote of the Month (past quotes)
	"I fear that the Ahmadinejad-Netanyahu duo might audaciously mug us of the hopes for a peaceful and just solution to the Arab-Israeli problem inspired by President Obama." Muqtedar Khan, director of Islamic studies at the University of Delaware, discussing the repercussions of the uprising in Iran in "Threatened Hopes," published in the Daily Times (Pakistan), June 28, 2009. (link to source)

UCSB to Offer Middle Eastern Languages This Fall
July 3, 2009 - The Santa Barbara Independent

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Dhimmitude [incl. Ingrid Mattson]
July 2, 2009 - FrontPage Magazine

Georgia State University Accused of Anti-Muslim Bias
July 2, 2009 - Georgia Public Broadcasting News

Georgia State University Teacher Alleges Anti-Muslim Bias
July 2, 2009 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Massad Gets Tenure at Columbia
July 2, 2009 - The Baltimore Jewish Times

York Conference On Israel Met By Protests [incl. Ian Lustick]
July 2, 2009 - The Canadian Jewish News

Has Obama Turned on Israel? [incl. Rashid Khalidi]
July 2, 2009 - The Wall Street Journal

Pastor Rick Warren to Address American Muslims [incl. Ingrid Mattson]
July 1, 2009 - Associated Press

Joseph Massad Can Relax
July 1, 2009 - The Bwog (Columbia University)

Georgia State University Accused of Retaliating Against Professor Who Alleged Anti-Muslim Bias
July 1, 2009 - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Blog

The Professor's Obsession: Joel Beinin

By Winfield Myers | Fri, 5 Jun 2009, 10:50 AM | Permalink

	Joel Beinin

Stanford Middle East history professor Joel Beinin's appearances on the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center (PPJC) Palo Alto cable television program "Other Voices" reliably produce anti-American, anti-Israel invective. In September 2008, Beinin declared, "The American empire is going down," and during a taping for the February 2009 show, "Gaza and the Future," he pronounced, "The United States aids and abets Israeli war crimes."

What Beinin labeled Israeli "war crimes" (i.e. defending its citizenry) and U.S. collusion therewith were central to his discussion, as the show aired soon after Israel's military incursion into Gaza in December 2008.

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

Islamic Speakers Bureau Backed By Radical Profs

By Winfield Myers | Mon, 1 Jun 2009, 4:00 PM | Permalink

	Sherman Jackson

In "Islamic Speakers Bureau Backed by Radical Profs," published May 31 at The American Thinker, Schanzer explores the connections between the Wahhabi apologists professors John Esposito, Sherman Jackson, and Ingrid Mattson and the proselytizing organization ING:

A California nonprofit dedicated to "teaching about Islam & Muslims" at U.S. high schools and college campuses features a board of advisors that is stacked with some of the most controversial activist professors in the field of Middle Eastern studies today. The imprimatur of these scholars may signal a troubling shift toward the support of proselytizing efforts and the further unraveling of Middle East Studies in America.

The board of Islamic Networks Group (ING) is a veritable Who's Who of Islamist apologists and activists. Leading the list is John Esposito, the founding director of the Saudi-funded Center for Muslim Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. He famously stated that the suicide-bombing Hamas organization engages in "honey, cheese-making, and home-based clothing manufacture."

Joining Esposito on the ING board is Sherman Jackson of the University of Michigan, who was a trustee at the North American Islamic Trust and worked with the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), both un-indicted co-conspirators in the U.S. v. Holy Land Foundation.

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

Who Speaks For Islam? Not John Esposito

By Winfield Myers | Thu, 28 May 2009, 9:11 AM | Permalink

	John Esposito

Georgetown University Professor John Esposito is the media's favorite go-to man for questions about Islam. As the founding director of the Saudi-financed Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown, he is also notorious for downplaying radical Islam. Stanford University hosted his latest round of apologetics on May 13.

Esposito, who spoke at Stanford last year, was on campus to promote the film version of his recent book (co-authored with Dalia Mogahed of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies), Who Speaks For Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think. He was joined by the film's executive producer, Muslim convert Michael Wolfe. The 55-minute film claims to present the results of the "largest, most comprehensive study" of Muslim opinion ever done. The crowd's political leaning were evident in the audible hisses that greeted the cinematic image of former President George W. Bush.

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

Whitman's Shampa Biswas: Instigator or Educator?

By Cinnamon Stillwell | Wed, 22 Apr 2009, 6:40 PM | Permalink

Writing at his new blog, The Rubin Report, GLORIA Center Director Barry Rubin points to Shampa Biswas, Whitman College Director of Global Studies and associate professor of politics, as an example of the "terrible, anti-democratic, and anti-American ideas" pervading higher education. As demonstrated in a glowing profile at the Whitman College web site and a 2007 convocation address, Biswas is yet another Edward Said acolyte helping to turn the field of Middle East studies (in which she specializes) into a forum for political activism and moral relativism.

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