Middle East Forum

US-based foreign policy think tank

Middle East Forum

Abbreviation| MEF
Formation| 1990
Type| 501(c)(3) nonprofit
think tank
Location|

* Philadelphia

President

| Daniel Pipes
Revenue| $4.13 million[1] (2022)
Expenses| $5.0 million[1] (2022)
Website| www.meforum.org

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

## History

[edit]

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.[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

[edit]

### Support for Tommy Robinson

[edit]

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 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.[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

[edit]

Middle East Quarterly

Discipline| Middle Eastern studies
Language| English
Edited by| Jonathan Spyer
Publication details
History| 1994–present
Publisher|

Middle East Forum (United States)

Frequency| Quarterly

Open access

| Yes
Standard abbreviations
ISO 4 (alt) · Bluebook (alt)
NLM (alt) · MathSciNet (alt )
ISO 4| Middle East Q.
Indexing
CODEN (alt · alt2) · JSTOR (alt) · LCCN (alt)
MIAR · NLM (alt) · Scopus · W&L
CODEN| MEQUFZ
ISSN| 1073-9467

LCCN| 94660065
OCLC no.| 644061932
Links

* Journal homepage
* Online access
* Online archive

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 journalist and Middle East analyst Jonathan Spyer.

#### Reception

[edit]

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".[15] 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".[16]

#### Abstracting and indexing

[edit]

The journal is abstracted and indexed in:

* EBSCO databases[17]
* Index Islamicus[17]
* International Bibliography of the Social Sciences[17]
* Modern Language Association Database[17]
* ProQuest databases[17]
* Scopus[18]

### Campus Watch

[edit]

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

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

### Israel Victory Project

[edit]

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."[24][25][26]

## See also

[edit]

* Politics portal
* United States portal

* List of think tanks in the United States

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "Middle East Forum - Nonprofit Explorer". ProPublica. 9 May 2013.
2. ^ MacFarquhar, Neil (14 March 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 24 February 2007.
5. ^ "American Forum Policy, Islam topic of talk tonight". Newspapers.com. North Adams Transcript. 10 April 2002. p. 7. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
6. ^ "The Islamophobia misinformation experts" (PDF). Center for American Progress.
7. ^ Caruso, David (13 April 2003). "Peace think tank selection stuns Muslim groups". Newspapers.com. The Atlanta Constitution. p. A7. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
8. ^ Pitts, Jonathan (18 January 2018). "Foreign affairs council won't disinvite critic of 'militant Islam'". Newspapers.com. The Baltimore Sun. p. A3. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
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.
* "Facebook erases far-right activist's page, Instagram profile". Chicago Tribune. 26 February 2019. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
* "Morrissey defends Tommy Robinson and new far-right party". The Week. 7 June 2018. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
* Hamilton, Fiona (30 May 2018). "Far-right provocateur Tommy Robinson jailed over court rant". The Times. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
* Morrin, Siobhan (29 May 2018). "Why Tommy Robinson Was Jailed, and Why U.S. Rightwingers Care". Time. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
* Palmer, Ewan (29 May 2018). "Why was Tommy Eobinson arrested? Far-right activist jailed for 13 months for 'prejudicing rape trial'". Newsweek. 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. ^ Goldberg, Michelle (30 September 2002). "Mau-mauing the Middle East". Salon. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
16. ^ Bail, Christopher (2014). Terrified : how anti-Muslim fringe organizations became mainstream. Princeton University Press. pp. 29–30\. ISBN 978-0-691-15942-3.
17. ^ a b c d e "Middle East Quarterly". MIAR: Information Matrix for the Analysis of Journals. University of Barcelona. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
18. ^ "Source details: Middle East Quarterly". Scopus Preview. Elsevier. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
19. ^ Qtd. from "Mission Statement," in "About Campus Watch", Campus Watch (campus-watch.org), n.d., accessed 17 February 2007.
20. ^ "Who's Who at Campus Watch", Middle East Forum (meforum.org), n.d., accessed 15 September 2022.
21. ^ Tanya Schevitz, "Professors Want Own Names Put on Mideast Blacklist", San Francisco Chronicle 28 September 2002, accessed 17 February 2007.
22. ^ Tanya Schevitz, "'Dossiers' Dropped from Web Blacklist", San Francisco Chronicle 3 October 2002, accessed 17 February 2007.
23. ^ Hussam Ayloush, "Column a Slur on Muslim Community", Orange County Register 1 December 2002, accessed 17 February 2007.
24. ^ Seaman, Daniel (7 April 2019). "Missing from the election buzz: How to end the conflict". JNS.org. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
25. ^ ""Israel Victory Project" launches new round on Israeli campuses". Israel National News. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
26. ^ "Daniel Pipes and the Israel Victory Project - Arab-Israeli Conflict - Jerusalem Post". www.jpost.com. Retrieved 29 May 2019.

## Further reading

[edit]

* Rubin, Barry; Colp, Judith (2004). Hating America: A History. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-516773-2.

## External links

[edit]

* Official website
* Middle East Quarterly
* Daniel Pipes, the Middle East Forum, founded in 1990

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF

National|

* United States
* Israel