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Middle East Forum

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Middle East Forum
AbbreviationMEF
Formation1990
Type501(c)(3) nonprofit
think tank
Location
President
Daniel Pipes
Revenue (2022)
$4.13 million[1]
Expenses (2022)$5.0 million[1]
Websitewww.meforum.org Edit this at Wikidata

The Middle East Forum (MEF) is an American conservative[2] 501(c)(3)[3] think tank founded in 1990 by Daniel Pipes, who serves as its president.[4] MEF became an independent non-profit organization in 1994. It publishes a journal, the Middle East Quarterly.

History

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The Middle East Forum was founded in 1990 by Daniel Pipes as an independent non-profit organization with the mission of “promoting American interests”. The MEF advocates for strong U.S. ties with Turkey, Israel, and other democracies in the region, a stable price for oil, human rights, and peaceful conflict resolutions.[5] It publishes the Middle East Quarterly and runs various advocacy programs.[6] Pipes said in 2003 that "militant Islam is the problem and moderate Islam is the answer",[7] but the left-leaning Center for American Progress and the Southern Poverty Law Center have criticized the MEF for spreading anti-Islamic messages.[8]

Activities

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Support for Tommy Robinson

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In 2018, the MEF stated that it had been "heavily involved"[9] in the release from prison of British anti-Islam activist and far-right political operative[10] 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.[11] They revealed that "the full resources of the Middle East Forum were activated to free Mr. Robinson",[9] which included: conferring with Robinson's legal team and providing necessary funds; funding, organizing and staffing the "Free Tommy" London rallies on June 9 and July 14, 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.[9][12] The MEF has itself been considered a part of the counter-jihad movement.[13]

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.[14]

Middle East Quarterly

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Middle East Quarterly
DisciplineMiddle Eastern studies
LanguageEnglish
Edited byEfraim Karsh
Publication details
History1994–present
Publisher
Middle East Forum (United States)
FrequencyQuarterly
Yes
Standard abbreviations
ISO 4Middle East Q.
Indexing
CODENMEQUFZ
ISSN1073-9467
LCCN94660065
OCLC no.644061932
Links
Not to be confused with The Middle East Journal.

Middle East Quarterly was founded in 1994 by Daniel Pipes and the current editor-in-chief is Efraim Karsh, research professor and former Director of Middle East and Mediterranean Studies at King's College London.[15]

Reception

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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".[16] 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".[17]

Abstracting and indexing

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The journal is abstracted and indexed in:

Campus Watch

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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.[20] Winfield Myers is the director of Campus Watch.[21]

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.[22] Subsequently, Campus Watch removed the list from its website.[23][24]

Israel Victory Project

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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."[25][26][27]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Middle East Forum - Nonprofit Explorer". ProPublica. 9 May 2013.
  2. ^ MacFarquhar, Neil (March 14, 2007). "Scrutiny Increases for a Group Advocating for Muslims in U.S." The New York Times.
  3. ^ "Middle East Forum". projects.propublica.org. ProPublica. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
  4. ^ "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 February 24, 2007.
  5. ^ "American Forum Policy, Islam topic of talk tonight". Newspapers.com. North Adams Transcript. April 10, 2002. p. 7. Retrieved 2023-12-11.
  6. ^ "The Islamophobia misinformation experts" (PDF). Center for American Progress.
  7. ^ Caruso, David (April 13, 2003). "Peace think tank selection stuns Muslim groups". Newspapers.com. The Atlanta Constitution. p. A7. Retrieved 2023-12-11.
  8. ^ Pitts, Jonathan (January 18, 2018). "Foreign affairs council won't disinvite critic of 'militant Islam'". Newspapers.com. The Baltimore Sun. p. A3. Retrieved 2023-12-11.
  9. ^ a b c Gregg Roman, News from the Middle East Forum (1 August 2018). "Tommy Robinson Free – MEF Heavily Involved". Middle East Forum. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  10. ^ *"UK far-right figure Tommy Robinson jailed for contempt". Business Insider. 29 May 2018. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  11. ^ "The EDL – Britain's Far Right Social Movement" (PDF). Radicalism and New Media Research Group, University of Northampton, 22 September 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 January 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
  12. ^ Bailey, Luke (14 July 2018). "This hardline US conservative think tank says it's funding Tommy Robinson rallies in the UK". iNews.
  13. ^ Perwee, Ed (2020). "Donald Trump, the anti-Muslim far right and the new conservative revolution". Ethnic and Racial Studies. 43 (16): 211–230. doi:10.1080/01419870.2020.1749688. S2CID 218843237.
  14. ^ "Middle East Forum | Factsheet: Islamophobia | The Bridge Initiative". Bridge Initiative. Georgetown University. 14 August 2018. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
  15. ^ Biography of Efraim Karsh; Middle East Forum
  16. ^ Goldberg, Michelle (2002-09-30). "Mau-mauing the Middle East". Salon. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  17. ^ Bail, Christopher (2014). Terrified : how anti-Muslim fringe organizations became mainstream. Princeton University Press. pp. 29–30. ISBN 978-0-691-15942-3.
  18. ^ a b c d e "Middle East Quarterly". MIAR: Information Matrix for the Analysis of Journals. University of Barcelona. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  19. ^ "Source details: Middle East Quarterly". Scopus Preview. Elsevier. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  20. ^ Qtd. from "Mission Statement," in "About Campus Watch", Campus Watch (campus-watch.org), n.d., accessed February 17, 2007.
  21. ^ "Who's Who at Campus Watch", Middle East Forum (meforum.org), n.d., accessed September 15, 2022.
  22. ^ Tanya Schevitz, "Professors Want Own Names Put on Mideast Blacklist", San Francisco Chronicle September 28, 2002, accessed February 17, 2007.
  23. ^ Tanya Schevitz, "'Dossiers' Dropped from Web Blacklist", San Francisco Chronicle October 3, 2002, accessed February 17, 2007.
  24. ^ Hussam Ayloush, "Column a Slur on Muslim Community", Orange County Register December 1, 2002, accessed February 17, 2007.
  25. ^ Seaman, Daniel (7 April 2019). "Missing from the election buzz: How to end the conflict". JNS.org. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  26. ^ ""Israel Victory Project" launches new round on Israeli campuses". Israel National News. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  27. ^ "Daniel Pipes and the Israel Victory Project - Arab-Israeli Conflict - Jerusalem Post". www.jpost.com. Retrieved 29 May 2019.

Further reading

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