Where’s the other side?

As I previously reported, the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville’s Saudi-branded indoctrination program listed on its course-offerings webpage 35 classes partially titled with “Arab,” “Arabic,” “Islam,” “Islamic,” or “Quran” but no courses with the word “Jew,” “Christian,” “Hebrew,” “Torah,” or “Bible” in the title—notwithstanding that these Judeo-Christian topics are at least as much part of the Middle East as are the Arab-Muslim ones. These one-sided offerings demonstrate the center is a propaganda machine.

The Saudi government paid UA-Fayetteville handsomely for this—$21.5 million given while Bill Clinton ran for and became president. And in response to a FOIA request I just made, the university disclosed that “[t]he University’s financial record-keeping software [only] dates to July 1, 2020. Since that date, the University has invoiced the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia Cultural Mission in Washington DC the amount of $1,303,633.60 for the tuition of enrolled students, approximately 35 per semester.”

This sounds exactly like the “special departments and programs that pander to specific identity groups,” which noted academic Alan Dershowitz recently warned us about in an article critical of their development across universities. (By the way, why doesn’t the university have financial records regarding Saudi funds from before mid-2020? I had asked for five years of information.)

Such programs, warned Dershowitz, risk being one-sided. Take when the Fahd Center canceled a highly credentialed Jewish-feminist scholar and supporter of Israel’s right to exist from speaking at an Arkansas conference, alleging her criticism of Islamic “honor” murders “promote[d] bigotry.” Bigotry against murderers, I guess.

Another one-sided presentation was to be held on the war between Israel and Palestinian terrorists resulting from their Oct. 7 pogrom. Predictably, the event only listed as presenters two anti-Israel speakers. The Israeli perspective was completely erased.

One of these two presenters, Ted Swedenburg, who bemoaned the subsequent cancellation of the Israeli-viewpoint-expunged gathering, characterized it as a “forum.” But a forum is where varying views are exchanged. Holding court on the war between Israel and Palestinian terrorists with only anti-Israel speakers isn’t an exchange of ideas at all. It’s indoctrination.

This anti-academic pattern is endemic. Professor Swedenburg recently wrote on these pages that “Jews lived and often thrived throughout the Middle East for centuries, a history that was tragically disrupted with the creation of the state of Israel.” His desperate dodging of the denouement demonstrates why this despot-denominated disinformation-delivery device deserves dismantling.

Here’s what Swedenburg elided: After the United Nations divided the Holy Land between its original-Indigenous Jewish inhabitants and later-invading Arabs, five Arab nations attacked Israel—and every Arab country and Iran killed or expelled their Jews. It was Arab aggression that, eh, “disrupted” the history of Jews in the Middle East.

Having someone present this accurate account is what differentiates indoctrination from education—the bare minimum our children deserve but aren’t receiving from our taxpayer-funded flagship university. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan: Chancellor, tear down this royal wreck.

And if Swedenburg and his fellow Fahdians want a discussion, I’ll arrange a debate on the Dave Elswick radio show. Are the Fahdians ready to have their words tested in real time— consistent with the values of a first-world, firstclass educational institution?

Dershowitz also wrote: “[S]o-called ‘progressives’ are largely regressive, in that they repress free speech and deny due process. These new McCarthyites are not truly liberals because they do not allow for freedom of thought, freedom of conscience, and freedom of speech. They show a fundamental disrespect for others who think differently from them …

“If you want to find apartheid situations in the Middle East, look to Saudi Arabia for apartheid based on religion and gender or talk about Iranian apartheid based on sexual orientation. But don’t pick Israel, which has the best record of equality on all of these grounds of any country in the Middle East, and one of the best … in the world.”

He concludes with the following test, which aptly distinguishes indoctriation from education: “Legitimate criticism [of Israel] should focus on issues and actions, not on what Israel is … If you criticize Israel for something, and the Palestinians do it too and do it worse, you must criticize them equally. If you criticize Israel, and other countries in the world are as bad or worse, you must put it in the context of those other countries.”

Perhaps we could address this topic at the forthcoming debate on the Dave Elswick show—if my offer is accepted, that is.

This is your right to know.