Close the Middle Eastern Studies departments in our universities. I was a student in one of these programs, and I’ll say it plainly: shut them down.
A majority is corrupt and compromised. Through these departments, dozens of American college students have been at best indoctrinated to despise this country and condone the crimes of terrorists, and at worst pushed toward real radicalization and extremist plots.
These programs provide the soft underbelly through which universities quietly accept foreign money and, with it, foreign influence that dictates curriculum, hiring, admissions, grants, and more. They serve as conduits that funnel money to extracurricular groups, adding an extra layer of protection and plausible deniability while funding the encampments and harassment campaigns that have erupted on campus in recent years.
STEFANIK TELLS CUNY CHANCELLOR ABOUT ANTISEMITISM RESPONSE, FACULTY TIES WITH MAHMOUD KHALIL
Anti-Israel protesters demonstrate outside Columbia University in New York City on September 3. (Yuki Iwamura/AP)
This influence has been seeping into our institutions for more than two decades, but it has become blatant precisely because there have been few or no consequences. As someone who has had a front-row seat to the jihadification of American academia, this is where much of it begins. Shut it down.
The rot is no longer theoretical. It contains names, funding streams and institutional addresses. At Columbia University, Mahmood Mamdani, father of New York City’s new mayor, is criticized for presenting Israel as a purely colonial project while downplaying the terrorism of groups like Hamas, thereby shaping the way African and Middle Eastern studies students understand the region.
At Oberlin College, Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, a former Iranian diplomat, has faced accusations that he helped cover up the Iranian regime’s mass executions in the 1980s and talked about Hamas’s “resistance” in a way that minimized terrorism.
An anti-Israel sign with the phrase “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free” at a protest near Tulane University in New Orleans. Jewish organizations have called the slogan anti-Semitic. (Ryan Zamos)
And at Princeton University, Seyed Hossein Mousavian, another former Iranian regime official, is accused of repeating Tehran’s talking points while appearing to legitimize Hamas and Hezbollah in public comments, all under the banner of Middle East security studies.
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If the person shaping the course offerings, speakers, and graduate funding is openly aligned with a ruthless authoritarian regime, why should anyone be surprised when students are hostile to Israel, sympathetic to certain terrorist groups, and convinced that America is the villain of the story?
The money behind this intellectual capture is staggering. Saudi Arabia has poured tens of millions into specific centers for Middle East and Islamic studies, from the King Fahd Center in Arkansas to programs called Alwaleed-bin-Talal at Harvard and Georgetown that fund chairs, research and student programs focused on Islam and the Middle East.
According to a 2022 report through the National Association of Scholars, a higher education think tank, Qatar has become one of the largest foreign donors to U.S. higher education since 2001, funneling several billion dollars through industry campuses and partnerships that shape what is taught about the Middle East both on Doha and U.S. soil.
This is not philanthropy in the abstract; it is targeted influence over who is hired, what is explored, and what narratives about Israel, Jews, and the West are elevated or suppressed.
People march against Israel in New York on October 8, 2023 – a day after the Palestinian terror group Hamas launched a massive terror attack on Israel, killing nearly 1,200 people and kidnapping around 241 people. (Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images)
And the results? Radical teachers and radicalized students. Faculty at some Middle East and related programs have been exposed to praising Hamas’s “resistance,” excusing the massacre of Israeli civilians, or sharing propaganda from Iran-affiliated channels, even though they hold positions of authority over vulnerable students and graduate funding.
Students trained in these environments helped lead the encampments last year, where Jewish students reported being blocked from parts of campus, shouting and being told to “go back to Poland” or “you have no right to exist.”
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At multiple universities, anti-Semitic incidents — from vandalized Hillel buildings to threats and attacks — increased in the wake of these protests, which were often organized or intellectually anchored by Middle East-affiliated faculty and student groups that draw their energy from these departments.
Until universities can prove that Middle Eastern studies programs do not serve as soft weapons of foreign regimes and breeding grounds for anti-Semitism on campus, the burden should not be on Jewish students to endure more hate while administrators “revise policy.”
Departments whose financial resources come from Riyadh or Doha, whose leadership defends Tehran’s proxies, and whose graduates populate encampments where Jews are hunted and excluded, have forfeited any claim to automatic trust. Shut them down. Check every dollar, every visiting scholar, every syllabus, every fellowship pipeline, and every formal tie to foreign governments and their fronts.
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If a program can be rebuilt on the basis of transparent, domestic funding, with staff who flatly reject terrorism and anti-Semitism, reopen it under strict supervision. If not, let the serious study of the Middle East live among disciplines that still remember the difference between science and indoctrination—and between academic freedom and the open enablement of Jew-hatred. Until then, shut it down.
