Middle East Forum

The Middle East Forum (MEF) is an American conservative<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 501(c)(3)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> think tank founded in 1990 by Daniel Pipes, who now serves as its chairman. Gregg Roman serves as director of the forum. <ref>"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 24 February 2007.</ref> MEF became an independent non-profit organization in 1994. It publishes a journal, the Middle East Quarterly.

History

The Middle East Forum was founded in 1990 by Daniel Pipes as an independent non-profit organization with the mission of “promoting American interests”. In 2002, the MEF advocated for strong U.S. ties with Turkey, Israel, and other pro-American governments in the region, a stable price for oil, human rights, and peaceful conflict resolutions.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It publishes the Middle East Quarterly and runs various advocacy programs.<ref name=CAPmis>Template:Cite news</ref> Pipes said in 2003 that "militant Islam is the problem and moderate Islam is the answer",<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> but the left-leaning Center for American Progress and the Southern Poverty Law Center have criticized the MEF for spreading anti-Islamic messages.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Activities

Support for Tommy Robinson

In 2018, the MEF stated that it had been "heavily involved"<ref name="meforum.org-tommy-robinson-free-mef-heavily-involved">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> in the release from prison of British anti-Islam activist and far-right political operative<ref name="AutoMS-4">*{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}

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|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Tommy Robinson, who is best known as a co-founder, former spokesman and former leader of the English Defence League (EDL) organization, and for his service as a political adviser to the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), Gerard Batten.<ref name="AutoMS-5">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> They revealed that "the full resources of the Middle East Forum were activated to free Mr. Robinson",<ref name="meforum.org-tommy-robinson-free-mef-heavily-involved"/> which included: conferring with Robinson's legal team and providing necessary funds; funding, organizing and staffing the "Free Tommy" London rallies on 9 June and 14 July, which was, they claim, reported by The Times, The Guardian, and The Independent; funding travel of the US congressman, Rep. Paul Gosar, Republican from Arizona, to London to address the rallies; and lobbied Sam Brownback, the State Department's ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom, to raise the issue with the UK's ambassador, which he did.<ref name="meforum.org-tommy-robinson-free-mef-heavily-involved"/><ref name="US-conservative-think-tank">Template:Cite news</ref> The MEF has itself been considered a part of the counter-jihad movement.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Georgetown University's Bridge Initiative reported in 2018 that the MEF had received millions of dollars from Donors Capital Fund ($6,768,000), the William Rosenwald Family Fund, the Middle Road Foundation, and the Abstraction Fund.<ref name="Bridge">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Middle East Quarterly

Middle East Quarterly was founded in 1994 by Daniel Pipes and the current editor-in-chief is journalist and Middle East analyst Jonathan Spyer.

Reception

In 2002 Juan Cole, a professor at the University of Michigan and a Campus Watch target, accused the journal of making "scurrilous attacks on people".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2014, Christopher A. Bail of Duke University described it as a "pseudo-academic" journal with editorial board members who share an ideological outlook, adding that while it appears to present legitimate academic research, it is regularly criticized "as a channel for anti-Muslim polemics".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Abstracting and indexing

The journal is abstracted and indexed in:

• EBSCO databases<ref name=MIAR>Template:Cite MIAR</ref>
• Index Islamicus<ref name=MIAR/>
• International Bibliography of the Social Sciences<ref name=MIAR/>
• Modern Language Association Database<ref name=MIAR/>
• ProQuest databases<ref name=MIAR/>
• Scopus<ref name=Scopus>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Campus Watch

In 2002, the Middle East Forum launched an initiative called Campus Watch that it claimed would identify "analytical failures, the mixing of politics with scholarship, intolerance of alternative views, apologetics, and the abuse of power over students" within academia.<ref>Qtd. from "Mission Statement," in "About Campus Watch", Campus Watch (campus-watch.org), n.d., accessed 17 February 2007.</ref> Winfield Myers is the director of Campus Watch.<ref>"Who's Who at Campus Watch", Middle East Forum (meforum.org), n.d., accessed 15 September 2022.</ref>

Initially, Campus Watch published the profile of eight university professors and teachers, who, it said, were "hostile" to America and "preaching dangerous rhetoric to students". This led around 100 professors to accuse Campus Watch of "McCarthyesque" intimidation and ask that their names be listed on Campus Watch too.<ref name=Schevitz>Tanya Schevitz, "Professors Want Own Names Put on Mideast Blacklist", San Francisco Chronicle 28 September 2002, accessed 17 February 2007.</ref> Subsequently, Campus Watch removed the list from its website.<ref name=Schevitz2>Tanya Schevitz, "'Dossiers' Dropped from Web Blacklist", San Francisco Chronicle 3 October 2002, accessed 17 February 2007.</ref><ref name=Ayloush>Hussam Ayloush, "Column a Slur on Muslim Community", Orange County Register 1 December 2002, accessed 17 February 2007.</ref>

Israel Victory Project

The Israel Victory Project, launched in 2017, is an initiative aimed at securing an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by putting pressure on Palestinians to end anti-Israel terrorism and acknowledge Israel's legitimacy as a Jewish state, rather than through bilateral negotiations. Daniel Pipes has stated that "Peace is not made with enemies; peace is made with former enemies."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

See also

• List of think tanks in the United States

Further reading

• Rubin, Barry, and Judith Colp. Hating America: A History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Template:ISBN.

External links

• Template:Official website
• Middle East Quarterly
• Daniel Pipes, the Middle East Forum, founded in 1990