“The New American McCarthyism: Policing Thought about the Middle East”
Joel Beinin
Race & Class, SAGE Publications, 2004

September 11 ushered in a sustained campaign by the American Right and the Bush administration to deligitimise critical thought about the Middle East, Islam and the Arab world. The Middle East Studies Association (MESA) has borne much of the brunt of this campaign, some of it conducted by think-tanks with close links to Israel's ruling circles. Such attacks on MESA date back to 1967 and the Arab-Israeli war. The role of organizations such as ADL, AIPAC, AVOT and ACTA is examined, as is Campus-Watch and the attempt to introduce legislation in 2003 to place university-level Middle East studies under much closer government control (via HR 3077). (back to academic freedom)