Sami Al-Arian |
Given Al-Arian's Islamist proclivities, it's not surprising that he feels at home in Erdoğan's Turkey, nor that his like-minded U.S.-based Middle East studies friends joined him for the October 8-10 "International Conference on the Muslim Ummah" at Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University, where Al-Arian is director of the Center for Islam and Global Affairs.
Naturally, conference sponsors included Georgetown University's Saudi-funded Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) and participants, ACMCU director (and Al-Arian's son-in-law) Jonathan Brown and founding director John Esposito. The latter is a notorious apologist for Islamism, and Brown, a Muslim convert, openly espouses Islamist tenets, including slavery and concubinage.
Other unsavory speakers were the fanatically anti-Israel Richard Falk, professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, and Islamist in moderate's clothing Tariq Ramadan, grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna and professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford University.
İbrahim Kalın |
That American Middle East studies academics would agree to speak alongside Kalın, who supported the death of academic freedom in Turkey, and Al-Arian, who blames his deportation on "Zionists," speaks to the moral vacuity of the field. They are peas in a pod: shameless proponents of Islamism, grateful recipients of tyrannical regimes' largesse, and shills for dictators. They fit in perfectly in Turkey.
Cinnamon Stillwell is the West Coast representative for Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum. She can be reached at stillwell@meforum.org.