Balancing Bias on Mideast Issues

The always-interesting Asaf Romirowsky:

Balancing the bias | Jerusalem Post

Even more problematic is the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, named for the Saudi prince whose $20 million donation in 2005 gave the center’s leader, John Esposito, a much louder voice in the Middle East studies community. Since then, the Alwaleed Center has become the locus of academic apologetics for Wahhabism in America. Along with his colleagues Yvonne Haddad, John Voll and others, Esposito and the newly rejuvenated center are now in a position to proliferate a glossy vision of Wahhabi Islam to Americans.

The Alwaleed Center isn’t shy about forging ties to radical Islamist groups with links to those who have launched attacks against Jews and Americans worldwide. A prime example of such collaboration is a joint conference held by the Alwaleed Center with the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR) in July 2000. UASR was by then known as the political command for Hamas in the United States, and Esposito’s co-chair for the conference was then-UASR executive director Ahmed Yousef, who fled the country in 2005 to avoid prosecution and consequently served as a Hamas spokesman in Gaza.

The best one can usually hope for from an honest reporter is that he’ll do his best to consult a range of experts and specialists—but what happens when the experts have been corrupted, too?
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