Truth About Islam in Academia?
by Cinnamon Stillwell
FrontPage Magazine
July 2, 2008
http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/5325
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=3D3177FD66-BABA-4E29-A9=
7C-A64646B5358A
While the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) has long dominated
the field, its highly politicized leader****p's inability to withstand
criticism, inattention to radical Islam, and apologetic approach
towards the West's foes has left many Middle East studies scholars
feeling unwelcome by their umbrella professional organization.
Enter the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa
(ASMEA). Founded last year by Professors Bernard Lewis and Fouad
Ajami, ASMEA offers an alternative to MESA's post-colonialist biases
and a venue for studying those elements of Islam and the Middle East
that MESA's leaders ignore or downplay.
ASMEA's emergence is cause for optimism. As Franck Salameh, a scholar
of the Middle East at Boston College, has written,
The complex and richly textured Middle East deserves far more than the
bromides and reductionist commentary that have of late become the
hallmark of some of our day's most influential scholars in the field.
ASMEA promises to provide such critically needed diversity of
perspective.
To see how things have progressed during its first few months of
existence, I interviewed ASMEA's director of public affairs, Patrick
Creamer to find out more about the organization's founding, its
inaugural conference in April, 2008, and its future.
***
CS: Why was ASMEA founded?
Creamer: ASMEA was formed as a response to the mounting interest in
these increasingly inter-related fields, and the absence of any single
group addressing them in a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary fa****on.
The Association also seeks to fill a second void caused by the absence
of free inquiry and honest scholastic debate on research pertaining to
Middle East studies and African studies within academia.
CS: ASMEA president and professor of political science at California
State University at San Bernardino, Mark T. Clark, told Inside Higher
Education that ASMEA's founders wanted an association "that would be
more independent and reflect the academic community more than interest
groups."
Can you elaborate on that?
Creamer: ASMEA's goal is to be the academic association of choice for
scholars with an interest in the Middle East and Africa. We intend to
achieve this goal by offering superior services and encouraging a
robust exchange of ideas amongst members=97principles which are often
shunned in other circles. Free inquiry, greater mix of perspectives,
and a desire to learn about the entirety of the Middle East and
Africa, and not just issues and viewpoints dictated by a few, are
among the ways ASMEA seeks to build the bedrock for the next
generation of scholars and teachers.
CS: Was ASMEA meant to be an alternative to MESA and if so, what are
the problems with MESA that led to its founding?
Creamer: There is a feeling among many who study the Middle East and
issues concerning the region that there was not a truly open academic
society for them to participate in prior to the creation of ASMEA. As
ASMEA Chairman Bernard Lewis said during his keynote speech at the
inaugural conference, Middle East studies are "beset by difficulties."
During Professor Lewis's keynote, he cited "the clash of disciplines
and lack of mutual recognition between them," as well as "the deadly
hand of political correctness," as the major difficulties facing those
who participate in Middle East studies. To that end, Professor Lewis
concluded his keynote by saying, "I hope this organization will make a
significant contribution to changing that." That is certainly a
founding goal of ASMEA.
CS: Scholars who are loyal to MESA argue that ASMEA has its own
biases. For instance, Bassam Haddad, director of the Middle East
Studies Program at George Mason University, accused ASMEA of being "a
response, rather than an organic expression of a desire to learn."
University of Michigan history professor Juan Cole labeled ASMEA
"exclusively ideological" and only "for people on the right."
And Laurie A. Brand, professor of international relations at the
University of Southern California and the head of MESA's academic
freedom committee, accused ASMEA's leader****p of being "at the
forefront of the neoconservative sup****t group for the new
administration" and of having its own "political agenda."
What is your response to these accusations?
Creamer: I am not going to respond point by point to their
accusations. A quick scan of each of these individual's writings will
show that they are not shy about spreading their ideological
viewpoints. That said, it is im****tant to note that ASMEA=97to use
Professor Haddad's interesting choice of words=97was born out of an
"organic expression of a desire to learn" in the truest sense. This
Association blossomed because many in the academic community felt the
status quo quashed their efforts to engage in the discussion. Scholars
want a true academic association where all ideas are discussed and
research is judged on its merits, not whether it p***** the litmus
test of the status quo.
CS: How is ASMEA funded?
Creamer: We are a non-profit organization which receives revenue from
members along with a network of private foundations.
CS: In comments posted at the Middle East Strategy at Harvard website,
Middle East studies scholars Philip Carl Salzman and Raymond Ibrahim
had nothing but praise for ASMEA's April, 2008 inaugural conference.
Ibrahim described it as "a breath of fresh air," while Salzman noted
that the "=91postcolonial' approach so prevalent in MESA, blaming all
problems of the Middle East on the West, was not much in evidence" and
that "many of the difficult issues of contem****ary conflict were
tackled head-on in ASMEA conference papers." How do you think the
conference went?
Creamer: The feedback we received from the conference from presenters
and attendees alike has been overwhelmingly positive. We are looking
forward to, and laying the groundwork for, our second annual
conference to be held in 2009, as well as looking at some ideas for
smaller regional conferences in the future to build off the successes
of our inaugural conference.
CS: Critics have pointed to the alleged preponderance of
representatives from military and national security-related think
tanks and organizations as reason to question ASMEA's appeal to fellow
academics. Meanwhile, Philip Carl Salzman called this "a constructive
development" and noted that "we want academics to be more realistic,
and we want agencies, governments, and the military to be better
informed." How do you respond?
Creamer: ASMEA's leader****p and the general consensus of members on
hand at the conference was that this was a positive benefit of holding
our conference in Wa****ngton. By its nature, there is a large military
presence as well as a large think tank population within the Beltway.
With their attendance at our conference, our members had the benefit
of sharing their research with policy-makers, decision-makers, and
influence-makers. Most scholars would jump at that op****tunity. The
same could be said of the Embassy representatives from the African and
Middle East nations who attended. So we think it is an additional
service we can offer our members. I do want to stress, however, that
the overwhelming percentage of those on hand at ASMEA's inaugural
conference were either professors or students.
CS: How does ASMEA approach the study of Islamism/Jihadism/Islamic
terrorism?
Creamer: Jihadism is certainly a topic that our member****p is
extremely interested in and that the Association is not going to shy
away from. Our first conference centered on the profound influence of
Islam in Africa and the Middle East and it sparked many discussions
about Jihadism. Over the course of the two days of the conference, a
number of presentations focusing on the impact of Islam, both in the
traditional sense and the modern, more extreme interpretations,
touched on or focused intensely on Jihad. Most of the feedback we
received on the conference's theme and discussions has been positive
and there appears to be a real thirst for scholastic inquiry into this
subject matter that others have traditionally swept aside in academia.
CS: What are ASMEA's future plans or goals? Do you see the
organization growing?
Creamer: As ASMEA's member****p continues to grow, we have big plans
for the future. We hope to hold smaller regional conferences and
events along with our annual conference; our first published journal
is set to come out at the end of the year; and we intend to roll out a
new state-of-the-art website which will allow for a number of new
services via the web for our members.
Note: Articles listed under "Middle East studies in the News" provide
information on current developments concerning Middle East studies on
North American campuses. These re****ts do not necessarily reflect the
views of Campus Watch and do not necessarily correspond to Campus
Watch's critique.
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