Endorsements of Campus WatchMiddle East Studies AcademicsAkbar Ahmed Eagle, February 2, 2004 "One of the challenges facing America after September 11 is how to deal with Islam. There is a need to understand the Muslim community, its history and its traditions. Who is better placed to act as a bridge than the scholar [Pipes] of Islam?" Timothy Furnish "Daniel Pipes' Campus Watch has assumed the status of 'a voice crying in the wilderness' against the political correctness, intellectual dishonesty and trivial pursuit that passes for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies in most of the American academy today. May this voice be heard until that post-modernist wasteland bears fruit!" Lewis Glinert "In an academic landscape where the Israel specialist is a rare species and appointments in Israel Studies have always been and continue to be mysteriously scarce, Campus-Watch performs a vital task. What scholars say and scholars do is a matter of public interest, and it is a tenet of academe that they be held to standards of accuracy, honesty and disclosure in their academic pronouncements." Efraim Karsh, Head "Daniel Pipes, one of the world's foremost authorities on the Middle East, has done an invaluable public service by establishing the Campus Watch web site to expose and debunk the pervasive partisanship and malpractice that has plagued Middle Eastern studies in Western universities for quite some time." Judith A. Klinghoffer "Daniel Pipes views Radical Islam as radical political ideology which uses terror as a legitimate method to achieve its goal of world domination. He wants to confront this virulent ideology in the same manner the US confronted Nazism and Communism, i.e., ideologically, economically, politically and militarily. . . . Campus Watch is proof of his commitment to encouraging such much needed reform in Middle Eastern Studies." John Swails, PhD "I am especially glad to see what is happening as a result of your Campus Watch website. The bias, the propaganda, the misrepresentation that has passed for Middle Eastern studies in this country is being exposed for all to see outside the walls of the academy. This light is necessary to aid in effecting change or, at the very least, bringing some balance. Keep up the good work." William E. Watson The creation of Campus Watch by Daniel Pipes is an important step in de-radicalizing a field which has been highly biased by apparent cultural and moral relativism for some time. Middle Eastern studies at many institutions of higher education has been subverted by politically-radical ideologues, making for an environment reminiscent of Sovietology during the Cold War years. Students who enroll in Middle Eastern history courses to learn about Harun al-Rashid or Suleyman the Magnificent should not have to "make do" with courses in apologetics for anti-Western Islamic terrorism. By monitoring scholarship in the field, Campus Watch provides an opportunity to remedy this creeping decay. Most importantly, students and parents of prospective students now have an invaluable independent instrument with which to measure the worthiness of programs supported by their tuition dollars. Non-Middle East Studies AcademicsGordon L. Bowen, Ph.D. "Over the thirty years I have taught at the collegiate level, there has been a steady deterioration in open debate within these special communities. Settings in which opposing viewpoints about controversial issues occur on campus have dwindled. Politicized curricula, combined with changing classroom norms and administrative attitudes, all have abetted this trend. While supporters of a one sided approach have come from all political perspectives, in recent years it is the political left that has been most active in blocking the expression of the views of those who hold opposing views. "The effect has been to obstruct the central mission of higher learning: the pursuit of truth, which can emerge only from full engagement with not just approved arguments but with a variety of reasoned positions. "Campus Watch is a valuable resource with which to monitor and hopefully one day to begin to reverse these disturbing trends. Exposing to public scrutiny the words and actions of those in positions of authority on campuses, Campus Watch can give students who feel bullied into silence a constructive way to respond to indoctrination posing as education. Moreover, the organizers of Campus Watch themselves serve as models of reasoned scholarship from which students can derive sound arguments to rebut the chic anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism that they too often encounter. Far from chilling our campuses, Campus Watch encourages real diversity on campus: the diversity of ideas." John J. Furedy Christine P. Furedy National Post, February 12, 2003 "On Jan. 28, the executive of the York University Faculty Association (YUFA) wrote to all YUFA members claiming that Dr. Pipes and his Campus Watch Web site are "committed to a racist (our emphasis) agenda In our view, this charge is as foul as it is unfounded, and reflects badly on Canadian faculty commitment to academic freedom. Even the UN has dropped it's 'Zionism is racism' slogan. When will Canadian faculty associations follow suit?" Victor Davis Hanson "If professors, scholars, and public intellectuals choose to enter the civic arena and voice their beliefs, then they are all subject to scrutiny-praise, blame, rebuttal, agreement, even parody-for what they say and write in public fora. In the case of controversies about the Middle East, where tempers run high and there is easy promulgation of false knowledge, Daniel Pipes' Campus Watch sheds light on often volatile and intemperate proclamations-allowing both the scholarly community and the public at large to read what our professors and experts write and then to determine on their own whether it is accurate or mere nonsense." Gary Hull, Ph.D., Director "With rare exceptions, humanities professors who hate America dominate our universities. These academics deride America for its virtues - for its ability to create wealth, its individualism, and its use of reason to achieve human happiness on this earth. In terms of foreign policy, these same professors blame America for strife in the Middle East, for the rise of militant Islam, and for terrorist attacks on our own country. The fact is that internationally, there is no greater threat to the future of Western Civilization and America than the rise of militant Islam. Yet our scholars, especially many of those in Middle East Studies, argue that there is no moral distinction between militant Islam - which seeks slavery and murder - and America and her allies, such as Israel. "As an antidote to academia's incessant anti-Americanism, I highly recommend a tremendously courageous organization: Campus Watch. Spearheaded by Middle East expert Daniel Pipes, the goal of this scholarly organization is to expose and combat the anti-American propaganda being taught to students, and fed to the media and policy makers. The future of Western Civilization depends on such noble efforts." Harvey Klehr Emory University Academic Exchange, Feb-Mar 2003 "[Campus Watch has] criticized the political views held by a number of academics. [Shalom Goldman, Associate Professor of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies at Emory University] asks whether 'attempts to stifle dissenting voices fall under the rubric of free speech?' But since when is he or any other academic immune from public criticism? Instead of crying foul about voices dissenting from his orthodoxy, he ought to engage them in argument." Eugene Kontorovich Academics are in the business of disseminating and debating their ideas. Thus professors usually like to have their work brought to the attention of wider audiences, and like to provoke controversy, which is often the byproduct of novel and insightful research. Thus one would expect academics who had the courage of their convictions to welcome a website dedicated to scrutinizing their writings, even if from a critical perspective. That of course has not been the reaction of the Middle Eastern Studies profs like Daniel Pipess Campus Watch. Rather than defend their views on the merits, they have equated public scrutiny to persecution. This raises a strong presumption that they cannot rebut Mr. Pipess substantive criticisms. The Middle East departments have long carried out their activities in the unseen corners of the academy, insulated from public scrutiny by the incomprehensible shibboleths of postcolonial theory. Their work transformed from scholarship into political advocacy, as Campus Watch amply demonstrates. Their hysterical reaction to Campus Watchs scrutiny is a sign of a monolithic, incestuous and dogmatic orthodoxy, forced for the first time to confront dissent. David Pryce-Jones not a member of the Middle East Studies guild entitled his excellent volume on Arab society The Closed Circle. How sad that the term could just as well describe the professors who supposedly study the subject. For trying to break the circle, Campus Watch deserves the gratitude of all who care about our institutions of higher learning. Stephen D. Krasner "The political opinions articulated by think tanks, TV appearing experts whether well versed in their subjects or not, and even the conventional media are often more diverse than the range of views that are publicly expressed at American universities and colleges. Campus Watch has widened the scope of serious intellectual debate about critical issues confronting the United States not only by presenting arguments that would rarely be heard on many American campuses but also by providing web links to those with very different opinions." Stanley Kurtz "Ever since Daniel Pipes established the Campus Watch website, he has been accused of McCarthyism. That charge has been rebutted again and again, yet still the charge is leveled. It has become a convenient excuse for silencing Pipes. Yes, the Campus Watch website posts the work of professors who it believes are biased and misleading in their treatments of topics Middle Eastern. But that is a way of starting debate, not stopping it." "Campus Watch doesn't post only supportive news pieces about its site, it posts critical pieces as well. And Pipes posts the actual work of the professors he sees as biased, allowing readers to judge that work for themselves." Steven Menashi Portland State University Daily Vanguard, February 21, 2003 "[Campus Watch's staff acknowledges] scholars' rights to free expression, merely reserving for themselves the right to question and criticize. Surely such debate is supportive of the academic enterprise; any institution committed to truth and open inquiry should not excuse its faculty from having to defend their arguments." John M. Nomikos, Director "I certainly support "campus-watch.org" (Daniel Pipes), a great web site, which is committed to truth, open-search regarding Middle East Studies in American institutions. I wish we had a "European campus-watch web site looking into Middle East Studies at the European Union institutions!" Stephen H. Norwood Eunice G. Pollack Oklahoma Daily, October 1, 2002 "[Campus Watch] should be welcomed by all who recognize that academic freedom has never meant a license for faculty to present disinformation in classrooms or public forums without criticism. The Web site provides valuable services by posting articles and speeches, often in their entirety, of several instructors around the country on Middle Eastern affairs, and by carefully analyzing and criticizing their biases and errors. Far from violating academic freedom, [Campus Watch director, Daniel] Pipes is using free speech to fight false speech." David D. Perlmutter Campus Watch is an organized force for moral and political honesty in education. It gives a voice to students and others frustrated with teachers who try to indoctrinate rather than inform and encourage independent thought. It helps foster a marketplace of ideas instead of a closed shop of propaganda. Jeremy A. Rabkin Cornell Daily Sun, March 28, 2003 "Professors have the right to say whatever they want and critics [such as Campus Watch] have the right to criticize them for what they say." Paul H. Rubin Emory University Academic Exchange, Feb-Mar 2003 "[Shalom Goldman, Associate Professor of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies at Emory University,] seems to believe that [Campus Watch] is a violation of academic freedom. But academic freedom implies the right of others to criticize one's beliefs. I myself have been known to make controversial arguments (as in this comment), and I would be quite happy to have these posted (by friends or enemies) on the web because in that way my arguments would get additional attention. If I did not want some argument publicized, I would not make it." Jonathan D. Sarna "Campus Watch provides much needed balance to a field besmirched by politics masquerading as scholarship. Its revelations should serve as a wake-up call to everyone truly concerned about the study of the Middle East in the American academy." Stephen G. Simpson "Students at large public American universities are dangerously misinformed about history in general, and the Middle East in particular. Daniel Pipes and Campus Watch have been struggling heroically to expose and correct the twin problems of declining academic standards and left-wing anti-American bias. The shrill and utterly unfounded accusations of McCarthyism serve only to show that Campus-Watch.org has struck a nerve." Ruth Wisse "In the absence of scrupulous, impartial "peer review" from inside the academy, the field of Middle East Studies will now benefit from the presence of Campus Watch. Middle East Studies in America will surely benefit from this scrutiny." StudentsZachary Constantino Eagle, February 02, 2004 "The real lesson for everyone out there is to recognize Dr. Pipes for who he is, an honest intellectual trying to improve Middle East Studies. Campus Watch is not what the hysterical propagandists say it is but the symptom of a much larger problem in desperate need of examination, discussion, and repair." Shankar Gupta Washington Square News, September 30, 2002 "[Campus Watch has] compiled information on Middle Eastern studies professors who display what the site characterizes as anti-American biases in their published writings and teachings Campus Watch is not the House Un-American Activities Committee, and these professors have not been blacklisted Campus Watch does not oppress anyone. It simply participates enthusiastically in the ongoing debate over U.S. relations with the Middle East." Matt Lowenstein Cornell Daily Sun, March 28, 2003 "I think [Campus Watch] will be helpful to students who want to know where their professors' biases are. Since it's a watch group, it doesn't seem dangerous to me, at least not until Cornell starts writing a blacklist, which I strongly doubt will happen." Laura Sahramaa Cavalier Daily, February 11, 2003 "Web sites like Campus Watch are a good alternative to formal sanctions: They have the potential to make professors aware of how students feel about their behavior, and professors are free to address the grievances or ignore them as they choose. The forums are examples of virtually powerless students using the only weapon they have in such situations: appeals to professors' consciences through letting them know their actions have created a negative learning environment for students." David Singer North Gate News Online, September 18, 2002 "I absolutely support Campus Watch. It is a fact that there is a bias on campus, a bias against Israel. This being an institution of education, there is nothing wrong with pointing out that the bias exists." Daniel Wichs Daily Stanford, October 10, 2002 "I believe I need not point out the paradoxical position of the article [Oct. 9, 2002, entitled 'Campus Watch Stifles Freedom of Expression'] which attempts to quiet the Campus Watch organization and deny it its rights of freedom of speech Although it is academically permitted and almost necessary to teach the subject from a specific viewpoint, Campus Watch is doing the University a service by commenting on professor Beinin's viewpoints and putting them in perspective..." Joshua Wiznitzer Brandeis Free Press, November 25, 2002 "Campus Watch is a site that encourages a search for the actual facts and the truth. In fact, aren't those who have denounced the site as an act of McCarthyism in fact practicing McCarthyism themselves by attempting to silence opposing viewpoints, by censoring free speech, and by doing masks the truth? "CampusWatch.org should be commended for its actions, as it shines a light on the controversies and biases that exist on college campuses, which otherwise may never be seen. As Justice Brandeis once said 'Sunlight is the best disinfectant.' The authors of Campus Watch should be commended for doing just that- disinfecting the bias, which currently infects many campuses and current scholarship and simultaneously promotes the quest for the truth." JournalistsJanet Albrechtsen "The [Campus Watch] website should be part of the rich and robust intellectual debate we so desperately need after September 11 and the massacre in Bali. But it isn't. . The vitriol confirms [Daniel] Pipes' findings: those who teach Middle East studies not only follow a pro-Arab, pro-Palestinian, pro-Islam path but want opposing views strangled at birth. The real problem with Campus-Watch is that this intellectual pursuit is relegated to an internet website. It should be part of the daily cut and thrust of academic and student life." Bart Cohen "If you actually visited the Campus Watch site and read its mission statement, you would find that its sponsors have no intention of suppressing anyone's right to speak. The site substantially limits itself to gathering information regarding the views of college professors, critiquing it and disseminating its conclusions. Those professors' views have been substantially immune from criticism because they have never before been widely disseminated beyond the extreme left-wing confines of academia Even if Campus Watch demanded that the professors named on its site be fired, its actions would not be remotely comparable to the violence of the Palestinian supporters at Concordia and San Francisco State." George Jonas "Dr. [Daniel] Pipes also runs Campus Watch, a controversial Web page that monitors and critiques Middle East scholars for bias in their academic work. Whatever one thinks of such an Internet site, monitoring and critiquing only extend free debate. Intimidating and rioting deny it." John Perazzo "Thanks to 'Campus Watch,' the new Website founded by Middle East Forum director Daniel Pipes, facts can no longer be hidden from the public Campus Watch is comprised of American academics who monitor and bring to public attention what is being taught in the Middle East Studies programs of our nation's colleges. Wherever there is anti-American bias, or pro-radical Islamist bias, Campus Watch will shine the light of day upon it for all to see." Barbara Sofer "The recent establishment of the Campus Watch, a Web site to make known the anti-Israel proclamations on campuses has brought protests of McCarthyism among some. But no one at that Web site is urging a boycott of classes or campuses. The site just exposes the original speeches of campus personalities to a little light and air. Don't potential students deserve to know the views of their teachers?" |
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