The National Review‘s Stanley Kurtz has more on increased federal funding (via grants for “area studies”) for the Middle Eastern Studies establishment, a group of scholars representing an entrenched disciplinary worldview that Kurtz argues is weakening — rather than strengthening — our knowledge of the Middle East:

[Joel Beinin] is the man who America’s scholars of the Middle East have chosen to lead them — a man who explains the events of September 11 by pointing to American foreign policy; a man who would cut off aid to Israel; a man who belittled those who were prescient enough to perceive a threat from Islamic extremists long before 9/11 (scholars like [Martin] Kramer and [Daniel] Pipes); a man who has seriously questioned America’s policy of opposition to a government in Iran that is obviously an adversary of this country; and a man who continues to embrace utopian Marxism, long after that dream has been revealed as a sham. This is the man who has the gall to demand that he and his supporters be given a special government subsidy on grounds of ‘national interest.’

Now let me be clear. There is no question here of depriving Professor Beinin of his academic freedom or his right to speak, only of depriving him and his friends of a funding bonus obtained on the false claim that the money will be used to protect our national security.

See also: “Anti-Americanism in the Classroom“; and “The Scandal of Middle East Studies“