In “Whitewashing the Muslim Brotherhood,” published today at FrontPage Magazine, Campus Watch contributor Janet Doerflinger examines the reaction by professors of Middle East studies to the role of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Egyptian uprising earlier this year:
How well did Middle East studies professors at American universities interpret the Egyptian uprising, particularly the risk of the Muslim Brotherhood gaining power? Among fifteen prominent professors who commented publicly on the uprising before and immediately after Mubarak’s ouster, fully thirteen believed that overthrowing Mubarak would lead to democracy in Egypt and that the Muslim Brotherhood would play a constructive role. Instead of explaining the Brotherhood’s Islamist agenda to the American public, they naively discounted it.