Ahmadinejad's Academics

My latest article for Campus Watch, which is posted today at Frontpage Magazine, takes a look at the changing (and not-so-changing) relationship between Middle East studies academia and contested Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It begins like so:

What a difference a popular uprising makes.

It seems like just yesterday that the Middle East studies establishment was busy defending Iran's theocratic regime and its president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from the alleged predations of U.S. and Israeli foreign policy. Yet in the wake of the unrest in response to the stolen election, suddenly American academics have succumbed to intellectual honesty and moral clarity. Despite the best efforts of the Iranian regime to drum up conspiracy theories blaming the West for the uprising, the Iranians themselves have taken center stage.

This signals quite a shift. When Ahmadinejad, the supposedly elected leader at the heart of the current crisis in Iran, spoke at Columbia University in September 2007, his appearance was applauded by many academic apologists as a means of "reaching out."

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The Professor's Obsession

My latest for Campus Watch; posted at Frontpage Magazine:

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.

One might have thought Obama's election would make Beinin optimistic about the prospects for weakening U.S. support for Israel, but his mood was decidedly downbeat. Obama, Beinin predicted, would "act like all America presidents" by "pushing U.S. interests with foreign policy." (What country doesn't pursue its own interests with foreign policy?) But, Beinin allowed, if Obama were to simply issue a "statement" telling Israel "it's committing war crimes," "going against U.N resolutions," and that "the U.S. will no longer sell Israel weapons," "the Israel Lobby and AIPAC would crumble." The crowd of mostly aging hippies murmured in agreement.

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Who Speaks For Islam? Not John Esposito

Stanford undergraduate and Stanford Review features editor Jonathan Gelbart has written an article for Campus Watch on radical Islam apologist John Esposito's recent appearance at Stanford. The article is posted at Frontpage Magazine and it begins like so:

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.

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Whitman's Shampa Biswas: Instigator or Educator?

My latest at the Campus Watch blog:

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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Recommended New Blog: The Rubin Report

Anyone who keeps up on Middle East politics should know about Barry Rubin, Director of the Global Research for International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, Professor at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel, and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs Journal (MERIA). Rubin's books, articles, and mailing list have lent expertise, common sense, and wisdom to the complicated morass that is the Middle East. He has been a contributor to the Middle East Quarterly and many of his useful insights into the field of Middle East studies have been reprinted and referenced at Campus Watch.

Now Rubin has started his own blog: The Rubin Report. Here is the GLORIA Center announcement:

Dear readers:

We hope you enjoy getting articles from us and find it useful. We will continue to send out 1-3 articles a week. Many more pieces, which will not be sent out, appear on our http://www.gloria-center.org as does MERIA Journal.

However, since we don't have space for all our writings and also to keep up with the times, I have started a new blog called Rubin Reports at http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/ which contains many additional articles and shorter pieces. You are welcome to visit the blog, subscribe to it, and send out links if you so wish.

Do let me know if you have any questions

Best regards, Barry Rubin, Director,

GLORIA Center

Profbarryrubin@yahoo.com

Rubin's previous work has proven indispensable, and the Rubin Report will doubtless do the same. I recommend it highly.

Cross-posted from the Campus Watch blog.

On Hiatus

As readers may have noticed, I've been on a blogging hiatus for some time now. Without going further into the details, I'll have to plead to a simple lack of inspiration. I'll post more information soon, but I just wanted to leave some sort of explanation for now. In the meantime, there's plenty in my archives for those who are so inclined.

Rashid Khalidi Gets Caught in a Lie

My latest at the Campus Watch blog:

Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies, has been caught in a lie. Khalidi concluded a January 8, 2009, op-ed that appeared in the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune with the following quote ascribed to former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon:

"The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people."

The problem is Ya'alon never made this statement and both publications have since had to excise it from the op-ed and issue corrections

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