Republican foreign policy leaders in Congress are accusing one of the nation’s most prominent academic groups on the Middle East of promoting anti-Semitism after the organization defended a college professor who accused Israel’s Mossad of orchestrating the latest attack on author Salman Rushdie .
Three Republican lawmakers wrote a letter to the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) demanding that the organization explain why it is defending University of Denver professor Nader Hashemi. The professor claimed that Israel’s secret service may have orchestrated the attack on Rushdie as part of a plot to derail ongoing negotiations with Iran over a new nuclear deal, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Free Washington Beacon.
The letter appears to be the opening of an effort by leaders at the Republican Study Committee (RSC) — the largest conservative group in Congress — to investigate instances of pro-Iranian bias on American college campuses. RSC Chairman Jim Banks (R., Ind.) said Free lantern Earlier this month that Hashemi’s “anti-Semitic and anti-American conspiracy theories are now widespread in universities,” stressing the need for congressional intervention.
Banks, along with Reps. Claudia Tenney (R., NY) and Doug Lamborn (R., Colo.), are demanding that MESA, which represents more than 2,800 college professors at 50 institutions across the country, explain why it is lending credence to the baseless theory that Israel was involved in Rushdie’s attack. The investigation, they write, is being carried out as part of the RSC’s effort to provide “monitoring of the anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism that have become rampant in higher education”.
Rushdie was nearly killed last month after an assailant said to be in contact with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) rushed the author at a public outing. The Corps, a paramilitary organization, has been trying for decades to kill Rushdie. Hashemi said in a podcast interview last month that the attacker may have been talking “with someone on the Internet who claimed to be an IRGC supporter and lured him into attacking Salman Rushdie. And that so-called person on the Internet who claimed that was linked to the Islamic Republic of Iran may have been a Mossad operative.”
Jewish advocacy and pro-Israel groups said Hashemi’s comments have no basis in fact. The University of Denver in a statement released to Free lantern at the time it defended Hashem’s right to free speech, but distanced himself from his comments, saying “his comments do not reflect the view of the university, nor are we aware of any facts that support that view.”
Following this statement, MESA attacked the university, claiming “that this poorly worded statement could be read as damaging to Professor Hashemi’s personal and academic reputation and as a violation of his academic freedom”. Hashemi, the group added, “engaged in legitimate speculation about the politics surrounding the assassination attempt on Salman Rushdie.”
Republican lawmakers say MESA is integrating conspiracy theories about Israel and Jews.
“Hashem’s baseless statement bears the hallmark of anti-Semitism, meaning the Jewish state, meaning the Jews, are at the center of a vast conspiracy to wreak havoc on the world, in this case, to sabotage ongoing negotiations for revival. the Iran nuclear deal”, the lawmakers wrote. “MESA’s statement essentially asks the University of Denver to accept such an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory under the auspices of ‘academic freedom.’ However, what is ‘academic’ about spreading conspiracy theories that incite hatred and prejudice?”
“Is it a standard practice for MESA and its members,” the lawmakers asked, “to endorse and encourage conspiracy theories and promote hatred and prejudice against a particular country or people on American college campuses?”
MESA, in addition to defending Hashem, has faced separate accusations of anti-Semitism after throwing its support behind the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which wages economic war on the Jewish state. The academic group’s support for the BDS movement “caused nearly one-fifth of your former university members to withdraw from your organization for fear of being associated with an anti-Semitic movement,” the lawmakers noted.
AJ Caschetta, a lecturer at the Rochester Institute of Technology and a fellow at the Middle East Forum’s Campus Watch group, said MESA is showing its anti-Israel bias. “MESA and Hashemi share the instinct to blame Israel for all the problems in the Middle East,” Caschetta said.
Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism.org, one of the groups pressuring the University of Denver to take disciplinary action against Hashemi, said campuses across the country are failing to adequately address anti-Israel bias.
“We are fed up with empty words from school administrators,” she said. “Penalties are meaningless without tangible action, and we encourage students to pursue legal avenues if their colleges and universities are not protecting them.”
Republican lawmakers are seeking answers to two central questions.
First, they ask: “How is it ‘legitimate speculation’ to spread a baseless, anti-Semitic conspiracy by Hashemi about the attack on Salman Rushdie as ‘much more likely’ than other possibilities?” Second, they ask, “As an organization supposedly dedicated to the ‘public understanding’ of the Middle East, what evidence can MESA or Hashemi in any way provide to substantiate his claim?”
Tenney, who is also a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Free lantern that academic groups like MESA are promoting Jew-hatred under the guise of academic freedom.
“This blatant anti-Semitism falls short of good faith academic dialogue and instead leads to the propagation of conspiracy theories of hatred on behalf of the Iranian regime,” she said. “MESA must respond immediately with any information it may claim to have in support of Professor Hashemi’s ridiculous and disturbing lies.”
