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Campus
Watch is to monitor the views of U.S. academia
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NEW
YORK, September 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A pro-Israeli
think tank launched an Internet site Wednesday, September 18, to
“monitor” the attitudes of American professors and universities
toward Islamic “fundamentalism” and the Arab-Israeli conflict,
while Jewish groups in the U.S. are using television advertisements to
publicize itself as the “only democracy in the Middle East.”
Under
the name of Campus
Watch, the site, launched by the Philadelphia-based Middle East
Forum, will maintain what it calls “dossiers” on professors and
academic institutions and collect information from students regarding
their teachers’ political opinions, the Wall Street Journal
reported.
The
site encourage students to “report” their professors’ speech and
acts under the banner of “keep us informed”, asking then “to
provide Campus Watch with reports on Middle East-related scholarship,
lectures, classes, demonstrations, and other activities relevant to
our work.”
The
site ads that information not yet been published or only reported in
the local/campus press is most useful.
Forum
director Daniel Pipes, and Martin Kramer, editor of the forum’s
Middle East Quarterly, have been prominent critics of Middle East
studies as taught in U.S. universities.
According
to the Wall Street Journal, institutions the site will focus on
include the University of North Carolina, where freshmen this year
were required to read passages from the Qur’an, and Harvard
University, where a Muslim-American student delivered a commencement
address originally titled, “My American Jihad.”
At
the same time, Jewish groups in the United States are starting a
television advertising campaign and will spend more than $A1.83
million ($3.36 billion) to promote Israel’s side in its conflict
with the Palestinians, the Sidney Morning Herald reported.
The
ads will run on cable news stations in 100 cities, with the message
that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, where Arabs,
Jews and Christians “enjoy freedom” of religion and speech and the
right to vote.
The
ad does not mention that Palestinians are suffering on a daily basis
under the occupation of the “only democracy in the Middle East”
that kills civilians, demolish homes and covers up for its soldiers’
terrorist acts against Palestinians.
“This
is really a back to basics campaign,” said David Harris, executive
director of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), which is helping to
fund the ads. “The essential element is that Israel is ... a kindred
spirit of the United States.”
While
the ads do not mention the violence in the Middle East, supporters say
the goal of the campaign is to build political support for Israel.
However,
the New York Post reported that CNN is refusing to run ads promoting
Israel as the Middle East’s only democracy, saying it does not run
“advocacy advertising regarding international issues from regions in
conflict”.
James
Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, a pro-Arab advocacy
group, criticized the campaign.
“Of
course I find it troubling. What they’re trying to do is sell an
image that will cover up the real problems that exist.”
