I have to smile when I watch President George W. Bush on television. There's something quite comical about the man, protruding ears and all. Dubya has brought words such as "strategery" into our language - he'd make a hilariously successful stand-up comedian. Yet every time I hear him speak, I still find it hard to believe he is the president of the United States of America.
One thing is for sure: Bush isn't exactly the scholarly type. So I certainly don't seek professors with his level of elocution or thoughtfulness. Nor would I want every professor of mine to be in staunch solidarity with U.S. government policies.
But Daniel Pipes, who visited the ASU campus last Thursday, sees it differently. In fact, Pipes would have university professors double as government propagandists, only teaching what is in "their country's national interests."
Pipes is a founding member of Campus Watch (www.campus-watch.org), a subsidiary project of his Middle East Forum. According to the Web site's mission statement, Campus Watch "reviews and critiques Middle East studies in North America, with an aim to improving them." I suppose that is accurate, if by "improve them" the organization means "make Pro-Israeli."
Campus Watch monitors campuses around the nation and encourages students to report the latest concerning news on Middle East studies at their school in a "Keep Us Informed" section on the Web site. The site also publishes lists of professors deemed unsound and samples of their work.
According to Campus Watch, the field of Middle East studies is in a state of disarray on college campuses because many scholars "reject the enduring policies of the U.S. government." Funny, I thought it was the job of our professors to create an open forum to discuss opinions, debate and disagree to promote learning. But in the eyes of those at Campus Watch, it is the duty of academics to only pursue studies of Middle Eastern culture and politics through a prism of U.S. economic and political interests.
Many have criticized Campus Watch for being a threat to academic freedom, and several professors targeted by Campus Watch have accused the organization of engaging in a modern-day McCarthyism.
These critics are overreacting - after all, a private Web site has a right to criticize what it wants, and Campus Watch's mission certainly does not have the magnitude of the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee of the 1950s. But while these may not be government-sponsored witch hunts, they are witch hunts all the same.
Academic freedom isn't the issue here, but rather, intellectual dishonesty. Intended or not, the Web site serves clearly inflammatory purposes. Polemical groups such as Campus Watch effectively destroy constructive debate by engaging in hyperbolic, label-heavy rhetoric and by playing on emotions in hot political issues.
Middle East studies and politics are in a state of disarray today, but it's not because of professors with terrorist sympathies, or because anti-American views exist on campuses across this country.
The real crisis these days is this: Anyone who dares to criticize Israeli policies is effectively labeled anti-Semitic. This kind of labeling seems to come easy for Mr. Pipes and his kind, and they label anyone who dares to criticize American policy un-American, too. But this is unfortunate, as there are many moderate Jews here and in Israel who hold views about the Israel-Palestine conflict similar to many of the professors on Campus Watch's blacklist.
Few dare to label these Jews as anti-Semitic. But for some reason, non-Jews or non-Israelis are not allowed to criticize Israel in today's political climate, lest they want to be called racist. Campus Watch only feeds this barrier to debate.
Campus Watch isn't about improving Middle East studies, but homogenizing them to fit with Pipe's policy agenda.
If I wanted to be told the candy-coated version of American policy in the Middle East, I could just turn on my television and watch for Bush or Rumsfeld. But I should expect more from my professors and classmates. Our "country's national interests" shouldn't be the sole curriculum in our classrooms.
Ish Masud is a journalism sophomore. Reach him at ishthiaque.masud@asu.edu.
