The Middle East Forum (MEF) is an American conservative think tank founded in 1990 by Daniel Pipes, who serves as its president. MEF became an independent non-profit organization in 1994. It publishes a journal, the Middle East Quarterly.
According to the organization's website, they promote "American interests and works to protect Western civilization from the threat of Islamism", advocate strong ties with Israel and other democracies as they emerge, work for human rights throughout the region; seek a stable supply and a low price of oil; and promote the peaceful settlement of regional and international disputes.
The Middle East Forum, a 501(c)3 tax-exempt nonprofit organization, has established the Legal Project to protect researchers and analysts who work on the topics of Islam and related topics from lawsuits designed to silence their exercise of free speech and to discuss key issues of public concern. The Legal Project aided Dutch politician Geert Wilders' legal defense when he faced a criminal indictment for his views in 2009.
Publications and projects
Middle East Quarterly
Middle East Quarterly (MEQ) is a peer-reviewed quarterly academic journal published by the Middle East Forum. It covers subjects relating to the Middle East and Islam, and analyzes the region "explicitly from the viewpoint of American interests". It was founded in 1994 by Daniel Pipes and the current editor-in-chief is Efraim Karsh, Research Professor and former Director of Middle East and Mediterranean Studies at King's College London. The journal was not originally peer-reviewed but introduced peer review in 2009 both to improve the quality of articles and "to give junior faculty an opportunity, while building their careers, to express their views freely."
Reception
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". 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".
Abstracting and indexing
The journal is abstracted and indexed in: EBSCO databases Index Islamicus International Bibliography of the Social Sciences Modern Language Association Database ProQuest databases Scopus
Campus Watch
In 2002, the Middle East Forum initiated the Campus Watch program and identified what it finds to be the five major problems in the teaching of Middle Eastern studies at American universities: "analytical failures, the mixing of politics with scholarship, intolerance of alternative views, apologetics, and the abuse of power over students." Winfield Myers is the director of Campus Watch.
Initially, Campus Watch published a list of problematic instructors, which led some professors to accuse Campus Watch of "McCarthyesque" intimidation; in protest, more than 100 other academics asked to be listed too. Subsequently, Campus Watch removed the list from its website, but replaced it with a list titled Professors to Avoid.
Islamist Watch
On April 21, 2006, the Middle East Forum launched Islamist Watch, a project that it states "combat[s] the ideas and institutions of nonviolent, radical Islam in the United States and other Western countries. It exposes the far-reaching goals of Islamists, works to reduce their power, and seeks to strengthen moderate Muslims."
According to the organization's website, Islamist Watch seeks to educate the government, media, religious institutions, the academy, and the business world about lawful Islamism. It focuses on the political, educational, cultural, and legal activities of Islamists in the United States and, to a lesser degree, in other historically non-Muslim countries, especially Western Europe, Canada, and Australia. Islamist Watch does not focus on counter terrorism and only indirectly concerns Islamism in Muslim-majority countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, and its three main "activities" include "research, advocacy, and activism."
In 2012, Marc Fink became the director of Islamist Watch.
The Legal Project
The Middle East Forum established the Legal Project in June 2007 to protect researchers, analysts, and activists who work on radical Islam and related topics from predatory lawsuits designed to silence their exercise of free speech.