Campus Watch attacked Middle East scholars as a route to anti-Arab targeting.
Evidence
Pipes went on to found the website Campus Watch, which asserts that Middle East scholars are un-American. In terms that barely disguise its contempt for the targeted scholars, the website explains why this might be so; one page, since removed, stated that âMiddle East studies in the United States has become the preserve of Middle East Arabsâ who âhave brought their views with them.â One such pernicious view is support for the Palestinian cause and criticism of Israeli settler colonialism. The next logical step was to target Arabs and Arab Americans. Indeed, Campus Watchâs first prominent attack occurred against Professor Joseph Massad of Columbia University. The David Project, a Hillel-funded group founded explicitly to influence campus debates on Israel, produced a documentary film titled Columbia Unbecoming, which claimed that Jewish students were being intimidated by Arab American professors and that Columbiaâs campus climate was rife with anti-Semitism. David Horowitz contributed to this attack by calling Massad âdangerousâ in his book The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America. Funds poured in from a network of sources and pressure on the Columbia administration intensified. Democratic congressman Anthony Weiner added fuel to the fire by calling for Massad to be dismissed. In the end, however, Columbia students and faculty launched a campaign in defense of Massad that defeated the new McCarthyites. Massad not only earned tenure but won the prestigious Lionel Trilling Award for excellence in scholarship. â Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 667
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
- XREF: Connects to the broader ânew McCarthyitesâ framing of think-tank attacks on academia, complementary to other materials on red-scare-style purges of scholars.