The Middle East Forum (MEF) invites Columbia University, which recently canceled a panel due to pressure from the Turkish government, to follow the example it set in 2017 when an MEF conference inspired a similar Turkish diktat. In sum, MEF refused to cave and instead, put Erdoğan’s enforcers on the defensive.
Winfield Myers, MEF director of academic affairs and Campus Watch, makes the following statement: “As Middle East studies departments increasingly censor themselves to align with Middle East dictators, the Forum happily fills the intellectual void. We examine all angles and provide platforms for a wide-array of voices – unafraid, with no apologies, and not bending before despots.”
