Howler of the Month (archive)

"[D]iscussions on college campuses about the complexities of freedom, history, and belonging in Israel and Palestine are under increasing pressure and potential censorship from right-wing entities. In fact, new policies adopted by the US and Israeli governments are intended to eliminate any rigorous discussion of Israeli–Palestinian politics in university settings. Not since the McCarthyite anti-Communist purges have we seen such an aggressive effort to censor teaching and learning on topics the government disfavors."

Katherine Franke, Sulzbacher Professor of Law, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and executive committee member for the Center for Palestine Studies at Columbia University, in "The Pro-Israel Push to Purge US Campus Critics"; New York Review of Books, December, 12, 2018. (link to source)

We Couldn't Have Said it Better (archive)

"Islamophobia has become a standard topic in Middle East studies and Islamic studies courses, often presented in conferences and publications as a great threat to the well-being of Muslims in North America. In reality, government statistics on religion-oriented hate crimes indicate that Jews are by far the most targeted group -- and many of these cases are perpetrated by Muslims. Muslims are targets in a small minority of cases."

Philip Carl Salzman, professor of anthropology at McGill University, in "'Islamophobia' Invention has Served its Purpose Spectacularly Well"; PJ Media, January 15, 2019. (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.