Howler of the Month (archive) "People in distress blame the government, and now blaming the government means taking the side of these Muslim terrorists. They're about as jihadist as you and me, but they're a lot less happy." Ian Lustick, Bess W. Heyman Chair in Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, speculating on the motivation of Colleen LaRose, aka "Jihad Jane," a convert to Islam indicted for plotting with terror suspects abroad to kill Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks for a caricature of Muhammad he drew in 2007; as quoted by the Associated Press, March 18, 2010. (link to source) We Couldn't Have Said it Better (archive) "Many on the Left employ a double standard concerning free speech. They want their own advocates or professors immunized from criticism – thus Prof. Newman's outrage at groups, such as Campus Watch, which publicize what professors say in and outside the classroom. On the other hand, they develop an elaborate set of rules to disallow the speech of others as incitement, Islamophobia, homophobia, sexism, racism, or McCarthyism." Jonathan Rosenblum, Jewish Media Resources Director and Jerusalem Post columnist, responding to a Jerusalem Post column by Ben-Gurion University political geography professor David Newman, February 19, 2010. (link to source)

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

Jihad Jane in the Classroom
March 23, 2010 - FrontPage Magazine

With Bans Lifted, Prominent Scholars To Arrive In U.S. [on Tariq Ramadan]
March 22, 2010 - American Civil Liberties Union

The Professor's Islamist Call to Battle [on Sherman Jackson]
March 22, 2010 - Frontpage Magazine

The Jewish Paradox [incl. Rashid Khaldi]
March 22, 2010 - FrontPage Magazine

Canadian Educators Need Education on Hate Speech
March 22, 2010 - National Journal

Center for Middle Eastern Studies Director Fired [on Rusty Rook]
March 22, 2010 - The Chicago Maroon (Student Newspaper of The University of Chicago)

Professor Temporarily Released from Iranian Prison [on Kian Tajbakhsh; incl. Hamid Dabashi]
March 22, 2010 - The Columbia Spectator

Language Professor to Bring Arabic and Dance to Umpqua Community College Campus
March 22, 2010 - The News-Review (Oregon)

Teaching Arabic in a New York City School
March 21, 2010 - The Denver Post

US Commission Rules Yemeni-American Teacher Was 'Victim of Prejudice' [on Dhabah "Debbie" Almontaser, incl. Khalil Gibran International Academy]
March 21, 2010 - The National (UAE)

Blog

The Professor's Islamist Call to Battle

By Cinnamon Stillwell | Mon, 22 Mar 2010, 12:12 PM | Permalink

	Sherman Jackson

Sherman Jackson, also known as Abdal Hakim Jackson, is a professor of Arabic and Islamic studies in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan.

Jackson specializes in Islamic law and has written and spoken extensively on the subject. Soon after the September 11, 2001, Islamic terrorist attacks, Jackson took the line popular among apologists, stating at a September 2001 University of Michigan Teach-in titled, "Terrorism: A Perversion of Islam," that "the killing of innocent peoples is forbidden by the law of Islam and it has been from the beginning of Islam."

But it turns out that not only is Jackson an apologist, he an outspoken proponent of the Islamist subversion of Western civilization.

Jackson made this abundantly clear at the Reviving the Islamic Spirit – 8th Convention in Toronto, Canada in December 2009, as a participant in the panel, "The New We: Muslims in Future of Western Society." Jonathan Usher, who attended and wrote about the conference for Campus Watch, described Jackson's speech as nothing less than "a call to battle." As he put it, "It had little to do with peaceful co-existence with the West, but was an exhortation for Islam to dominate the West."

To read the entire article, please click here.

History as Propaganda

By Cinnamon Stillwell | Thu, 11 Feb 2010, 12:30 PM | Permalink

	Rashid Khalidi

"This is not an Israeli-Palestinian debate," Stanley Cohen, the director of the Scone Foundation, said. "It is [a conference] to honor the archivist profession."

Cohen's statement was half true: the event was not a "debate," but only because there were no dissenting opinions to challenge keynote speaker Rashid Khalidi's monologue portraying the Palestinians as powerless victims of an Israeli foe intent on destroying their historical records.

Cohen was speaking to an audience of approximately 150 people, mostly members of the general public and scholars of the Middle East, at the Scone Foundation's "Archivist of the Year" award ceremony, held January 25 at the CUNY Graduate Center's expansive auditorium in the heart of New York City.

The event was billed as an opportunity to honor the joint recipients of the seventh Archivist of the Year award, Yehoshua Freundlich of the Israeli Archives and Khader Salameh of the Al-Aqsa Mosque Library. Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University and a former spokesman for the PLO, and Professor David Myers, the director of the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, were the event's keynote speakers.

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

"Reviving the Islamic Spirit" or Promoting Islamic Dominance?

By Winfield Myers | Fri, 5 Feb 2010, 8:21 AM | Permalink

	Sherman Jackson

Billed as "Canada's largest Muslim convention," Reviving the Islamic Spirit – 8th Convention was held in Toronto on December 25 – 27, 2009. Having heard the reports that 17,000 attendees from Canada and the U.S. were expected, I decided to see for myself. I also wanted to know if the convention would stress spirituality, promote moderate Islam, or offer apologias for radical Islam.

The lecture hall, with a capacity of 6,500 people, was completely full and there were still many people outside. The sales area contained around 50 booths selling Islamic clothing and books. I looked for books by reformers such as Salim Mansur, Tarek Fatah, Irshad Manji, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, to no avail. Similarly, none of the speakers I heard addressed the violence of radical Islam. This gross omission about something so current and important was telling.

Also telling was the radical lecture by University of Michigan professor Sherman Jackson, which, Usher writes, "[W]as a call to battle. It had little to do with peaceful co-existence with the West, but was an exhortation for Islam to dominate the West."

Read the rest of the essay here.

New Campus Watch Research: the Model Arab League, and Massad at UCLA

By Winfield Myers | Mon, 1 Feb 2010, 6:58 PM | Permalink

CW-commissioned pieces appeared today and yesterday. Stephen Schwartz takes a close look at the Model Arab League in "Model Middle East Indoctrination," which appeared Sunday at American Thinker. What he found should concern parents of students in high school and college who participate in this seemingly benign enterprise:

Most Americans, even many of those concerned with the problems of academic Middle East Studies, have probably never heard of the Model Arab League (MAL), an American exercise similar to the better-known Model United Nations. The stated aim of such efforts is to expand awareness of world affairs among high school and college students. Participants compete in regional role-playing sessions as representatives of constituent countries in the corresponding world bodies and receive awards for their performance. They are then sent to contend at "nationals" held in Washington, D.C. and similar to matches sponsored by many other student societies and sports associations.

But the Model Arab League could be described better as a propaganda network for Arab nationalism, including promotion of the Arab states' hostile postures toward Israel, than as a contributor to excellence in international studies or debate.

Today at FrontPage Magazine, Eric Golub reports on a recent lecture at UCLA in, "Joseph Massad at UCLA: Gay-Bashing 101":

A lecture last week at the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies (CNES) offered a delightful mixture of intellectually deficient material mixed with a dash of bigotry.

It was delivered by Joseph Massad, associate professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University.

People in the private sector compensate for inadequacies by purchasing expensive cars. In academia, they just give themselves long titles.

The topic of Massad's lecture was – I kid you not – "Pre-Positional Conjunctions: Sexuality and/in Islam."

Read the rest of Schwartz's article here; Golub's piece is available in its orginal form at this link.

Campus Watch Blog Archive