Campus Watch Weekly Update

Campus Watch reports the following from December 9 – 15, 2019:

Campus Watch in the Media

On or including Rep. Denver Riggleman’s letter to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos—which cited research from an MEF/CW report—asking the DoE to review federal Title VI funding for Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, due to its pro-BDS, anti-Israel faculty:

JTA (Ron Kampeas): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60111/the-tell-executive-order-disorder

JNS (incl. Middle East Studies Association): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60105/gop-congressman-expresses-concerns-about-anti

Campus Watch Blog

UC Santa Cruz Taps Prof Who Pushed the Academic Boycott of Israel to Head New Middle East Studies Center (David Gerstman): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60085/uc-santa-cruz-taps-prof-who-pushed-the-academic

Middle East Studies in the News

Gary Fouse on UC Santa Cruz’s new Center for the Middle East and North Africa, headed by anti-Israel prof Jennifer Derr (references CW’s blog on the subject): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60110/uc-santa-cruz-middle-east-propaganda-center-new

Harvard Crimson editorial on the travails of ethnic studies (incl. Divinity School prof Ahmed Ragab): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60118/another-blow-to-ethnic-studies-incl-ahmed-ragab

Two of American U. prof Akbar Ahmed’s students laud a speaker on Sufism: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60114/mingling-through-music-and-culture-incl-akbar

Robert Spencer on the Swiss woman—and alleged rape victim—suing Tariq Ramadan for slander: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60123/swiss-woman-who-accused-tariq-ramadan-of-rape

American Thinker op-ed on the effort by Islamist activists to draw a connection between US border security and Gaza (incl. Zaytuna College’s Zaid Shakir, Southern Methodist U’s Omar Suleiman): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60088/islamists-and-the-border-incl-zaid-shakir-omar

Inside Higher Ed on Iran freeing Princeton graduate student Xiyue Wang: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60096/iran-frees-princeton-graduate-student-on-xiyue

On a DoE investigation finding that US universities failed to report more than a billion dollars in foreign funding, incl. from Qatar:

Washington Examiner: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60093/scratching-the-surface-education-department

Inside Higher Ed: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60103/official-foreign-gift-investigation-found

Articles on President Trump’s executive order on antisemitism on college campuses that include Middle East studies (in chronological order):

The New York Times: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60092/trump-targets-anti-semitism-and-israeli-boycotts

The Washington Post (incl. Indiana U’s Abdulkader Sinno): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60112/trump-executive-order-on-anti-semitism-adds-to

The Chronicle of Higher Education (also references the Princeton/Xiyue Wang news): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60113/education-department-calls-colleges-foreign

J: The Jewish News of Northern California: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60106/trump-title-vi-order-merely-protects-pro-israel

The Atlantic (Berkeley Law School lecturer David Schraub): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60120/why-trump-executive-order-on-anti-semitism

Reason Magazine/The Volokh Conspiracy (David Bernstein responds to Schraub): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60119/assessing-some-criticisms-of-the-trump

Associated Press (AP): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60104/anti-semitism-order-raises-tough-issue-of-efining

On Rhodes College prof and imam Yasir Qadhi defending the hadith about Jews hiding behind the rocks and the trees, and claiming Muslims can’t be antisemitic:

Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) translation: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60115/american-islamic-scholar-based-in-texas-sheikh

JNS: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60116/us-islamic-scholar-hadith-about-muslims-killing

Articles that include UC Berkeley’s Hatem Bazian:

Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers on Bazian’s BDS fail re Trader Joe’s selling Israeli Feta cheese: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60122/hatem-bazian-bds-feta-fail-at-trader-joes

IPT on an Amnesty International event in Dallas on “Palestine and Kashmir” at which Bazian was a speaker: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60117/amnesty-international-teams-with-radicals-to

The Claremont Independent on Pitzer College and David Horowitz trading blows over David Horowitz Freedom Center posters on campus: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60094/pitzer-college-david-horowitz-trade-blows-over

Moonlighting

Daniella Peled in Haaretz on the antisemitic reaction of Jeremy Corbyn supporters after his loss in the recent UK election (incl. Norman Finkelstein): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60121/corbynism-lost-but-its-cultists-are-still-blaming

Huffington Post on “Muhammad” breaking into a US parenting website’s top ten list of most popular baby boy names for the first time (incl. Rutgers prof Sylvia Chan-Malik): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60095/muhammad-appears-in-top-10-baby-name-list-for

Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign holds an “Arab Americans for Bernie” event in Dearborn, MI (incl. U. of Detroit Mercy’s Amer Zahr): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/60089/arab-american-supporters-of-bernie-sanders

Cinnamon Stillwell analyzes Middle East studies academia in West Coast colleges and universities for Campus Watch. A San Francisco Bay Area native and graduate of San Francisco State University, she is a columnist, blogger, and social media analyst. Ms. Stillwell, a former contributing political columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, has written on a wide variety of topics, including the political atmosphere in American higher education, and has appeared as a guest on television and talk radio.
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