Campus Watch in the Media

State Department Gives Dialogue Grant to Scholar Who Wouldn't Appear with IDF Vet [on Muqtedar Khan]

by Martin "Sol" Soloman
Solomonia Blog
February 14, 2008

http://www.solomonia.com/blog/archive/2008/02/state-department-gives-dialogue-grant-to/index.shtml

http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/4793

It should be a joke, but it's not. The State Department has given a grant of $494,368 to the University of Delaware scholar who refused to appear on a panel with an IDF veteran to be used "to initiate a dialogue on religion and politics between key members of religious and community organizations in the Middle East and the United States.": Coddling Islamists

The U.S. Department of State has awarded a grant worth $494,368 to University of Delaware political scientist, Brookings Institution fellow, and Pentagon consultant Muqtedar Khan, who last fall objected to serving on a panel with a veteran of the Israeli Defense Forces. According to a UD press release, the grant is to be used, "to initiate a dialogue on religion and politics between key members of religious and community organizations in the Middle East and the United States."

The press release continued:

Under the grant, participants from Egypt and Saudi Arabia will be on campus this summer for a brief period before traveling to other locations, including New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Later a group of American scholars will travel to Egypt and Saudi Arabia to take part in similar activities in those countries. A documentary film is planned of the visit to the U.S.

The choice of Khan to oversee a program dedicated to expanding dialogue between religious communities is beyond parody, as Khan himself has a record of thwarting dialogue, at least with Israeli veterans. Moreover, his award is part of a larger pattern of coddling Islamists within the bureaucracies of the State Department and Pentagon...

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