Campus Watch   Setting the Record Straight

Exposing the Infrastructure of Anti-Muslim Hate

November 1, 2010

Response to:

Exposing the Infrastructure of Anti-Muslim Hate
by Frankie Martin
On Faith (Blog of the Washington Post)
October 26, 2010
Categories:
Misc. Corrections
False accusations of being part of a lobby or conspiracy
False allegations of connections to other organizations

Campus Watch Responds:

In an intemperate--one might even say hateful--attack on an article by the Investigative Project’s Laura Rubenfeld, Frankie Martin, an Ibn Khaldun Chair Research Fellow at American University’s School of International Service, confuses the contents of Campus Watch’s extensive archives with our own research. In “Exposing the Infrastructure of Anti-Muslim Hate,” written for the On Faith blog of the Washington Post, Martin attacked CW for being part of a supposed conspiracy of “hate bloggers” who malign Islam and “Prophet Muhammad":

Like so many posts, Rubenfeld’s article was circulated incestuously amongst the hate bloggers and caught fire online. In addition to its prominent placement on Pajamas Media, Rubenfeld’s article was featured on the Jawa Report, Daniel Pipes’ Campus Watch. . . .

Had Martin taken the time to thoroughly research the targets of his diatribe, he would have found the following disclaimer, which appears on every article in CW’s archives that we did not commission or produce in-house:

Note: Articles listed under “Middle East studies in the News” provide information on current developments concerning Middle East studies on North American campuses. These reports do not necessarily reflect the views of Campus Watch and do not necessarily correspond to Campus Watch’s critique [emphasis original].

As this disclaimer states clearly, CW archives material on Middle East studies in North America whether we agree with its content or not. For amassing such an archive, CW is a “hate blogger”? Such an absurd charge is analogous to demanding that a library remove from its collection all books and articles one finds distasteful. Is this what Martin intends--to place himself in the company of sour censors who would scour library shelves in search of supposedly errant or insulting information? Will Catcher in the Rye be the next target of Martin’s malicious and uninformed attacks?

(Posted by Winfield Myers)