Middle East Forum

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Logo of the Middle East Forum.

The Middle East Forum (MEF) is an American conservative[1] think tank founded in 1990 by historian and columnist Daniel Pipes, who also serves as its director.[2] MEF became a 501(c)3 non-profit organization in 1994. It publishes a journal entitled Middle East Quarterly.

The MEF describes its aims as "[to] define and promote American interests in the Middle East" through research, publications, and educational outreach. The MEF defines "U.S. interests" as "fighting Islam, whether terroristic or lawful; working for Palestinian acceptance of Israel; improving the management of U.S. democracy efforts; reducing energy dependence on the Middle East; more robustly asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia; and countering the Iranian threat."[3]

Based on a belief that the United States has vital interests in the region of the Middle East, according to the organization, they advocate strong ties with Israel, Turkey, and other democracies as they emerge; work for human rights throughout the region; seek a stable supply and a low price of oil; and promote the peaceful settlement of regional and international disputes.[4]

The Middle East Forum has established a Legal Project to protect researchers and analysts who work on the topics of terrorism, terrorist funding, and radical Islam from lawsuits designed to silence their exercise of free speech.[5] It has established a Legal Defence Fund for Geert Wilders' defence.[6]

Contents

[edit] Mission statement

The mission of the Middle East Forum is defined in "About the Middle East Forum" on the organization's website as follows:[3][4]

The Middle East Forum, a think tank, seeks to define and promote American interests in the Middle East. It defines U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam, whether terroristic or lawful; working for Palestinian acceptance of Israel; improving the management of U.S. democracy efforts; reducing energy dependence on the Middle East; more robustly asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia; and countering the Iranian threat. The Forum also works to improve Middle East studies in North America.
MEF sees the region, with its profusion of dictatorships, radical ideologies, existential conflicts, border disagreements, political violence, and weapons of mass destruction as a major source of problems for the United States. Accordingly, it urges active measures to protect Americans and their allies.
Toward this end, the Forum seeks to help shape the intellectual climate in which U.S. foreign policy is made by addressing key issues in a timely and accessible way for a sophisticated public.

[edit] Publications and projects

[edit] Middle East Quarterly

The Middle East Quarterly (MEQ) is a quarterly journal devoted to Middle Eastern affairs. It was founded in 1994 by Daniel Pipes and the current editor is British academic and author Denis MacEoin, a former lecturer in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Newcastle University and the author of numerous books and articles on Islam.[7]

According to Middle East Quarterly's website, "policy-makers, opinion-makers, academics, and journalists" consult MEQ "for in-depth analysis of the rapidly-changing landscape of the world's most volatile region." The journal also claims to publish "groundbreaking studies, exclusive interviews, insightful commentary, and hard-hitting reviews that tackle the entire range of contemporary concerns – from politics to economics to culture, across a region that stretches from Morocco to Afghanistan."[8]

[edit] Campus Watch

In 2002, the Middle East Forum initiated the Campus Watch program and identified what they believe to be five problems in the teaching of Middle Eastern studies at American universities: "analytical failures, the mixing of politics with scholarship, intolerance of alternative views, apologetics, and the abuse of power over students."[9] Winfield Myers is the current director of Campus Watch (2007).[10]

Initially, Campus Watch encouraged students to submit reports regarding teachers, books, and curricula, which led some professors to accuse Campus Watch of "McCarthyesque" intimidation; in protest, more than 100 other academics asked to be listed too.[11] Subsequently, Campus Watch removed the list from its website.[12][13]

[edit] Islamist Watch

On April 21, 2006, the Middle East Forum launched Islamist Watch, a project that Islamist Watch states it "combat[s] the ideas and institutions of nonviolent, radical Islam in the United States and other Western countries. It exposes the far-reaching goals of Islamists, works to reduce their power, and seeks to strengthen moderate Muslims." Islamist Watch claims to educate the government, media, religious institutions, the academy, and the business world about lawful Islamism. It focuses on the political, educational, cultural, and legal activities of Islamists in the United States and, to a lesser degree, in other historically non-Muslim countries, especially Western Europe, Canada, and Australia.[14]

According to the organization's website, Islamist Watch does not focus on counter terrorism and only indirectly concerns Islamism in traditional Muslim countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, and its three main "activities" include "research, advocacy, and activism."[14]

In December 2006, Paul Belien became director of Islamist Watch.[15]

[edit] The Legal Project

The Middle East Forum established the Legal Project in June, 2007, in order to protect researchers and analysts who work on the topics of terrorism, terrorist funding, and radical Islam from predatory lawsuits designed to silence their exercise of free speech.[16]

According to the Legal Project's website, it acts in four ways to counteract Islamist threats to free speech, "Fundraising for an Escrow account to supplement the court costs and litigation fees for victims of Islamist lawfare (all funds raised go directly to lawfare victims); Arranging for pro bono and reduced rate counsel for victims of Islamist lawfare; Maintaining an international network of attorneys dedicated to working pro bono in the defense of free speech; and, Raising awareness about the issue. Efforts include briefings by legal experts on how to avoid libelous statements, and consultations with libel lawyers before publishing on certain topics."[17]

[edit] Criticism

In 2002 Juan Cole, a professor of Middle Eastern history at the University of Michigan who has been a target of Campus Watch, criticized MEF in Salon magazine, writing that "The Middle East Forum is not really a forum. Somebody rich in the community has set Pipes up with a couple of offices and a fax machine and calls him a director." Salon noted that "aside from Pipes, the Middle East Forum has a single researcher, whose job, according to the Web site, extends into fundraising."[18] However, the MEF website currently lists more than 20 staff members, the majority of whom are described as engaging in research or activism.[19]

Professor Joel Beinin, Middle East History at Stanford University and President of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) of North America, who is named on the Campus Watch website criticizes:

Another effort to police dissent is focused on those who teach Middle East studies on college campuses. Middle East Forum, a think tank run by Daniel Pipes and supportive of the Israeli right wing, has established a Campus Watch website. After failing in his own pursuit of an academic career, Pipes has evidently decided to take revenge on the scholarly community that rejected him. ... Campus Watch notes that:

"Middle East studies in the United States has become the preserve of Middle Eastern Arabs, who have brought their views with them. Membership in the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), the main scholarly association, is now 50 percent of Middle Eastern origin."

Some Americans have foolishly believed that all U.S. citizens have equal rights regardless of their country of origin and that pointing to peoples' country of origin to discredit them is a form of racism. This too, is outmoded thinking according to Campus Watch. But imagine the uproar that would be created by the suggestion that because Daniel Pipes is Jewish he may be more loyal to Israel than to the United States.[20]

One recent project of Pipes and his Middle East Forum is Campus-Watch, a website designed to police dissent on university campuses. Campus- Watch’s original statement of purpose, which was subsequently removed from the website due to criticism of its McCarthyite character, was to "monitor and gather information on professors who fan the flames of disinformation, incitement, and ignorance." Campus-Watch alleged that Middle East scholars "seem generally to dislike their own country and think even less of American allies abroad. The reason was that "Middle East studies in the US have become the preserve of Middle Eastern Arabs, who have brought their views with them".[21]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Scrutiny Increases for a Group Advocating for Muslims in U.S.
  2. ^ "Middle East Forum" listed in "Search Results" and "Resource Library" on the website of the Foreign Policy Association; cf. organization website for Meforum.org, Middle East Forum, one of DanielPipes.org", "Daniel Pipes's websites" (incl. its "Mission" statement), all accessed February 24, 2007.
  3. ^ a b "About the Middle East Forum", accessed February 17, 2007.
  4. ^ a b Daniel Pipes, "The MEF Mission", danielpipes.org (personal organization website of Daniel Pipes), n.d., accessed February 17, 2007.
  5. ^ Meforum.org
  6. ^ CanadaFreePress.com
  7. ^ Current issue of Middle East Quarterly 14.2 (Spring 2007), accessed February 17, 2007.
  8. ^ Middle East Quarterly. Publication website hosted by its sponsoring organization, Middle East Forum, accessed February 19, 2007.
  9. ^ Qtd. from "Mission Statement," in "About Campus Watch", Campus Watch (campus-watch.org), n.d., accessed February 17, 2007.
  10. ^ "Who's Who at Campus Watch", Middle East Forum (meforum.org), n.d., accessed February 17, 2007.
  11. ^ Tanya Schevitz, "Professors Want Own Names Put on Mideast Blacklist", San Francisco Chronicle September 28, 2002, accessed February 17, 2007.
  12. ^ Tanya Schevitz, "'Dossiers' Dropped from Web Blacklist", San Francisco Chronicle October 3, 2002, accessed February 17, 2007.
  13. ^ Hussam Ayloush, "Column a Slur on Muslim Community", Orange County Register December 1, 2002, accessed February 17, 2007.
  14. ^ a b "Islamist Watch" (information page), Middle East Forum, n.d., accessed February 17, 2007.
  15. ^ "Paul Belien Appointed Director of Islamist Watch", press release, Middle East Forum December 11, 2006, accessed February 17, 2007.
  16. ^ Legal-Project.org
  17. ^ Legal-Project.org
  18. ^ Michelle Goldberg, "Mau-mauing the Middle East," Salon (30 September 2002).
  19. ^ Middle East Forum staff page, accessed August 28, 2009.
  20. ^ Joel Beinin, HNN.us, Who's watching the watchers? History News Network, September 30, 2002
  21. ^ MondeDiplo.com

[edit] Further reading

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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