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

Boston Memorial

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.

By Cinnamon Stillwell  |  May 7, 2013 at 12:02 pm  |  Permalink

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

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:

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By Winfield Myers  |  May 3, 2013 at 7:09 pm  |  Permalink

UC Berkeley's Hatem Bazian Promoted ASUC Divestment Vote

Hatem Bazian

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.

By Cinnamon Stillwell  |  April 25, 2013 at 3:53 pm  |  Permalink

'The Great Book Robbery' Hijacks History

Benny Brunner

'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.

By Winfield Myers  |  April 8, 2013 at 1:49 pm  |  Permalink

'Israel Lobby' Threatening Free Speech at Berkeley?

Hatem Bazian

The title of a recent panel discussion at the University of California, Berkeley was ominous: "SHHHH! Don't Talk About Palestine: Chuck Hagel, Judith Butler, and the Israel Lobby's Threat to Free Speech on Our Campus." Taking place in Boalt Hall at UC Berkeley's School of Law and sponsored by Students for Justice in Palestine, the event drew what appeared to be sixty hardcore anti-Israel activists—most in their early twenties—eager to embrace the notion that UC Berkeley is under siege by "pro-Israel advocates seek[ing] to silence debate about Palestinian human rights and divestment from Israel's occupation."

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By Winfield Myers  |  March 29, 2013 at 6:23 am  |  Permalink

Pro-Gay and Anti-Israel? 'Pinkwashing' to the Rescue

Nada Elia

What's a pro-gay, anti-Israel activist to do when faced with the fact that the Jewish state is the only nation in the Middle East in which not only is it illegal to discriminate against homosexuality, but where homosexuality is celebrated with an annual gay pride parade? To such activists, the answer is obvious: invent a bogus theory called "pinkwashing" that accuses Israel of touting gay rights in order to downplay its alleged oppression of the Palestinians.

The University of California, Los Angeles's Center for Near Eastern Studies recently jumped into the fray with a lecture comically titled, "Pinkwashing: Gay Rights and Queer [sic] Indigeneities" (the term "indigeneities," an invented piece of academic jargon, is derived from "indigenous"). In a sparsely attended presentation rife with post-colonialist rhetoric, Nada Elia, a professor of gender and global studies at Antioch University in Seattle and a member of the organizing committee of the U.S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI), attempted to align her support for "Palestinian queer activism" with her devotion to all things anti-Israel.

To read the entire article, please click here.

By Cinnamon Stillwell  |  March 25, 2013 at 1:15 pm  |  Permalink

The Iran Lobby Buys a Friendly Face for Despotism

Mahdavi Damghani

The funding of a significant pro-Iran lobby that funnels money to American universities was disclosed to the wider public for the first time during the U.S. Senate's recent confirmation battle over Chuck Hagel's successful nomination as secretary of defense. By far the largest grantor is the Alavi Foundation, now under federal investigation, which has given Harvard University $345,000 over nine years ending in 2011. Other institutions in the U.S. and Canada have also benefited from Iranian largesse.

Hagel, who represented Nebraska as a Republican U.S. Senator from 1997 to 2009, has long advocated a soft line toward the brutal theocratic regime, as exemplified by his call in 2007 for "direct, unconditional and comprehensive talks with the Government of Iran."

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

By Winfield Myers  |  March 10, 2013 at 7:38 pm  |  Permalink

Indoctrinating Children: 'Palestine Solidarity' in the Classroom

Marcy Jane Knopf-Newman

Marcy Jane Knopf-Newman is an anti-Israel activist and English professor who has taught at Boise State University, al-Quds University, the American University of Beirut, and other universities in the Middle East. In The Politics of Teaching Palestine to Americans: Addressing Pedagogical Strategies (New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), she has assembled a guidebook for American high school teachers on how to teach the Arab-Israeli conflict. (While writing it she transitioned from university to high school teaching herself.) The book's documentation, though substantial, is extremely biased, as all of her quotes and references are part of a closed loop in which Palestinians are presented as innocent victims and Israelis as evil-doers. Her entire bibliography and a "What You Can Do" section are geared toward fomenting anti-Israel activism.

To read the entire article, please click here.

By Cinnamon Stillwell and Rima Greene  |  February 16, 2013 at 1:30 pm  |  Permalink

Pushing 'Palestine' at UCLA

The most recent Campus Watch research features a report by journalist Reut Cohen on a panel discussion at UCLA's law school that saw professors claim, among other things, that Hamas rocket attacks on Israel amount to "pinpricks." It appears today at Frontpage Magazine:

The United Nations General Assembly's decision to grant "non-member state observer" status to the Palestinians in November, 2012 was the latest salvo in the never ending quest to create a mythical state of "Palestine" unburdened by concessions to coexistence with Israel. A recent panel discussion, "Palestine & the UN," at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) took up the subject with mixed results. Sponsored by the Center for Near Eastern Studies (CNES), the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, and the Burkle Center for International Relations, the event was well-attended, with an audience of approximately 100 comprised of students and community members.

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

By Winfield Myers  |  February 15, 2013 at 11:38 am  |  Permalink

Manufacturing 'Islamophobia' at UC Berkeley

In an article for Campus Watch posted today at Frontpage Magazine, I examine the University of California, Berkeley's highly politicized Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project and its latest vehicle, the Islamophobia Studies Journal:

Scholars of the Middle East would do well to follow the lead of the Associated Press (AP), which last year struck the political term "Islamophobia" from the new edition of its widely used Stylebook, explaining that "'-phobia,' an irrational, uncontrollable fear, often a form of mental illness should not be used in political or social contexts, including 'homophobia' and 'Islamophobia.'" Given that the word was invented in the early 1990s by a Muslim Brotherhood front organization, the Northern Virginia-based International Institute for Islamic Thought (IIIT), in order to silence critics of Islamism by branding them as irrational racists and hate-mongers—according to former IIIT member Abdur-Rahman Muhammad who was present at the time—AP made a wise decision.

In contrast, the field of Middle East studies—in partnership with organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an Islamist outfit linked by the United States government to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood posing as a defender of civil rights—has become one of the key proponents of the myth that "Islamophobia" is sweeping the nation. Professors of Middle East studies regularly use the phrase in both public lectures and the classroom, while producing books, op-eds, reports, and programs devoted to the promulgation of this deliberately misleading term.

At the forefront of this effort is the Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project (IRDP), a program of the University of California, Berkeley's Center for Race and Gender directed by Near Eastern studies senior lecturer and notorious anti-Israel activist Hatem Bazian. Bazian, co-founder of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), has links to Hamas through his work with KindHearts and through SJP's sister organization, the Muslim Students Association. In addition to annual conferences devoted to the subject beginning in 2010 (information is available here and here), the IRDP produced the inaugural edition of its Islamophobia Studies Journal in late 2012.

To read the entire article, please click here.

By Cinnamon Stillwell  |  January 25, 2013 at 12:29 pm  |  Permalink