Campus Watch   Research

Campus Watch Weekly Update

November 1, 2023

Campus Watch reports the following from October 23 - November 1:

Campus Watch Research

A Devil’s Bargain on Campus: What Compels Students to ‘Stand in Solidarity’ with Hamas? (A.J. Caschetta):
https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/65136/a-devil-bargain-on-campus-what-compels-college

Pro-Hamas Profs Declare Their Support for Mass Murder (Andrew E. Harrod): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/65117/pro-hamas-profs-declare-their-support-for-mass

Make Pro-Hamas Countries That Fund American Universities Fess Up (Clifford Smith): https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/65110/make-pro-hamas-countries-that-fund-american

Middle East Studies in the News

Jewish billionaire says he will no longer donate to Columbia U. after prof Joseph Massad’s statements praising Hamas: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/65119/anti-israel-ivy-league-students-get-brutal-news

More than 75 Columbia U. profs, including Rashid Khalidi, Mahmood Mamdani, and Nadia Abu El-Haj, sign letter claiming Hamas massacre can be seen as “military action": https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/65120/columbia-university-professors-claim-hamas

Calls for removal of Rutgers U. prof Sahar Aziz from Westfield School Board continue: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/65074/backlash-call-for-removal-of-westfield-school

Texas Democratic Congress set to run against Ted Cruz comes under fire for his relationship with Southern Methodist U. prof Omar Suleiman: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/65089/anti-israel-imam-supported-by-texas-house

Columbia U. prof Rashid Khalidi uses Nazi talking points in his defense of Hamas: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/65096/the-nazi-case-for-hamas-incl-rashid-khalidi

Moonlighters

Former Temple U. prof Marc Lamont Hill responds to BLM Chicago’s support of Hamas: https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/65102/marc-lamont-hill-responds-to-adl-criticism-of-blm

Harvard University Columbia University University of Chicago Georgetown University Middle East Studies Association (MESA) University of California, Los Angeles University of Pennsylvania University of California, Santa Barbara Rutgers University Brown University Saudi/Gulf Funding Rashid Khalidi Joseph Massad Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Noura Erakat George Mason University Beshara Doumani Hossein Mousavian Oberlin College Sahar Aziz Foreign Funding of American Universities
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On March 15, 2026, two weeks into the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran’s regime, Alireza Doostdar, an associate professor of Islamic Studies in the Divinity School, told his followers on X that he was reading Yahya Sinwar’s prison novel The Thorn and the Carnation for his course “Liberatory Violence” and found it “remarkable how good it is as sociological commentary.”
Research
The Great Satan Comes to Hyde Park
UChicago’s Former Middle East Center Director Teaches Sinwar and Roots for Tehran’s Missiles
October 21, 2026
 · 
Gregg Roman
On Friday, September 18, 2026, Michigan State University’s Muslim Studies Program marked its 20th anniversary at the MSU International Center. The honoree was Mohammed Ayoob, a distinguished professor emeritus of international relations and the program’s founding coordinator.
Campus Watch
9/11 Wasn’t About Islam, Says the Professor Michigan State Just Honored
‘The Reality Was Far More Complex and Was Primarily Related to the Widespread Opposition to American Policy in the Middle East’
September 21, 2026
 · 
Gregg Roman
“Lawdan Bazargan, you are absolutely finished,” Saeidi says in a Persian-language post on X last month, verified as accurate by The Post. “I am coming after you with an army … Lawdan, we will do something to you that will be recorded in history.” Image: Old Main at the University of Arkansas.
Research
Former University of Arkansas Professor Shirin Saiedi Vows to Go After Critics ‘With an Army’
Pro-Iran Professor Blames the End of Her Career in the U.S. on Lawdan Bazargan
September 6, 2026
 · 
Benjamin Weinthal